Wonderland
by Shu of the Wind
Summary: She's an overzealous workaholic struggling to take care of her brilliant younger sister. They are the host club who just walk into the wrong bakery at the wrong time. Of course, everything that happened afterwards was totally their fault. ON HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

_TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN, and thus my use of quotes throughout this story is right and legal by the guidelines of FFnet. _

_Ah, here it finally is. I've been working on this for a while, so much so that every single member of my family knows the characters by name (lemme tell ya, that was a feat) and I'm very, very fond of my OCs here. I hope very much that you feel the same._

_DISCLAIMER: I do not own any aspect of _Ouran High School Host Club_. The club and all of its accoutrements belong to the honorable Hatori Bisco._

_There was once a little girl named Alice, who, bored with her reading sister, follows a tempting white rabbit down a rabbit hole into a land of wonders. The story is utter nonsense, of course, but one does, well, wonder…_

* * *

**Chapter One**

_Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.  
_~ The King

It was only a few weeks to the summer holidays when Shou Tsubaki was first introduced – however vaguely – to the existence of Ouran Academy's Host Club.

"Maki, come on, it'll be fun." Rin pulled at her arm, pouting prettily. She had a lovely face to pull it off with: sharp nose, large eyes, well shaped mouth. The boys in the kitchen called her the Juliet of Délice Patisserie. Of course, just who Romeo was was always a point of debate. "You never leave the bakery, it's so boring. Even you deserve a break sometime!"

"If I don't fulfill my hours today, I don't get to eat next week." Tsubaki replied irritably, turning the page of her book. It was in English, so she had no worries about Rin, who had slacked off in all her language classes for her three years in high school, reading it. Not that Rin would be interested in a non-fiction book, anyway. Shoujo manga was more her style. "You go and karaoke, I have to stay here. And don't call me Maki."

Rin rolled her eyes. "God, Baki-Maki, you're boring. You're such a stick in the mud. You're the only one who can keep everyone calm and sober, I wish you would come along."

"Blistered be thy tongue for such a wish."

Rin's lips twitched, as though she was trying to hide a scowl. "You're so weird."

"You're calling Shakespeare weird?"

"No, I'm calling _you_ weird, there's a difference." Rin let go of her arm, backing out from behind the counter as she locked her hands behind her back. She'd changed out of the bakery's uniform, back into her street clothes, and Tsubaki could only feel pity for the boys in Rin's group of friends. If that skirt grew any shorter, it would become the hem of her shirt. "Ah, well. Don't say I've never invited you anywhere!"

And with a final flick of her long black hair, Rin left the bakery, leaving behind blessed, blessed silence. Tsubaki sighed deeply, marking her page before snapping the book closed and setting it on the glass top of the check-out counter. It was a slow day. Usually, on a Sunday afternoon, Délice had a mountain of customers clamoring over each other, but always a slow point around lunch. Now it was an hour past lunch, and not a single customer had opened the glass door. Rin had, of course, made arrangements for a playdate – her words, not Tsubaki's – today, and, of course, Rin being Juliet, the manager had allowed it.

_He probably doesn't know that she's currently on a date with not one but three different boys._ Tsubaki thought sourly. Eichi, the manager, was another part of the bakery staff with a soft spot for Rin. If he had known she was dating, his mind probably would have imploded.

Sighing deeply, Tsubaki tilted her head back, tapping the glass counter with the end of her pencil. She'd been underlining certain phrases in her book, to store them in her memory. She loved quotes. She loved drawing, too, but she'd left her sketchbook at home. Not much else to do. At least Délice was air conditioned – it was getting hot outside.

Délice Patisserie was small, but popular enough to make a substantial profit with its French-based treats. Half of the building was devoted to a café, and the other half the actual bakery, which had more income. The main baker, a French woman named Marie-Thérèse, had moved to Japan with her husband ten years before, and had been running Délice ever since, with the sort of personal touch that had made the place grow extremely popular. (Their treats were exquisite, as well as cheap, an extra draw.)

The good thing was, they were lenient enough to let their employees lounge at the counter reading; unless, of course, a customer came in. The relaxed air of the place, with its high ceilings, creamy pastel walls with traditional French inlays, made it possible for the clerks to lounge around a bit, even with a customer in the room. The bad thing was that even as a high-school student, the part-time hours were very long, leaving very little time for anything else; she usually had to do her homework on her breaks.

At least being a part-time employee gave her a discount on the Black Forest _gateau_.

The little bell hung over the door rung, and Tsubaki sat up straight, sliding off her stool. "Welcome to Délice Patisserie! How may I help you?"

"Ah, no…" The customer – a girl, about the same age she was – held up both hands. "That's not necessary, thank you. I'm just looking."

"Feel free to ask me if you need anything." Tsubaki smiled politely and returned to her book as the girl paused by what Tsubaki had privately termed the strawberry section. It was where all the delicate cakes, the little individual slices of cheesecake, and the fruit tarts were kept, and most of them were topped with sliced or whole strawberries. This girl looked like a strawberry person. Sweet but tart, serious with a sarcastic edge. She was even wearing pink, and it fit her quite well – a loose one-piece pink dress, with a white T-shirt beneath. Tsubaki was slightly envious – she didn't have to wear a uniform to work.

Tsubaki liked to define the customers by the desserts they typically bought. Sometimes she made suggestions based on her own secret assessments of people. If the girl didn't buy a strawberry tart of her own accord, Tsubaki would drop a subtle hint. She looked like she needed something to calm her down; a distinctly stressed aura was coming off her in waves.

"Excuse me?"

Tsubaki blinked and looked up; the girl had pointed into the case, smiling very politely; it look like she'd had practice. "Can I have two strawberry tarts, please?"

"Of course." Tsubaki said quickly, snatching up the tongs and the small boxes she needed. "Anything else?"

"Well, yes, actually." She smiled apologetically. "If I could have one of those –" She pointed at the small squares of Black Forest cake, specifically the one without icing, "– a Sachertorte, an apple tart, and two of…" she scanned the shelves with her eyes, slightly indecisive. Tsubaki paused, waiting dutifully. "What are those?"

She pointed. Tsubaki blinked.

"Gypsy tarts." She identified; they hadn't made the classification cards for the shelves, yet, despite the fact that she had mentioned it to Marie-san at least a dozen times. She was well-intentioned, but had a mind like a flour sieve – things just slid in and out as easy as a hot knife through butter. "They're made with pie crust, evaporated milk, and rough brown sugar. They're quite good." She added quickly, in case the ingredients list had put off the strawberry girl. "I like them especially."

"Two of those, then." Strawberry-girl said, her smile growing wider. "That's it."

"A piece of Black Forest cake, a Sachertorte, an apple tart, two Gypsy tarts, and two strawberry tarts. That'll be…" she ran through the prices in her head, adding them up. "2150 yen."

"Fine." The girl said amiably, as Tsubaki pulled the treats out of the cases and put them each into little individual boxes, labeling them carefully.

"This is a lot of dessert to eat on your own." Tsubaki said conversationally. "Will you be having friends over?"

For some reason, this brought a dark look onto her face. "You could say that being dragged out of grocery shopping by people you see too much at school anyway is seeing friends, and being forced to pay for lunch as a generosity. Of course, it's also called kidnapping and freeloading."

Tsubaki laughed politely. By the time she made it back to the counter, strawberry-girl was studying her book.

"I've seen people reading that at my school." She offered, looking interested. Then her expression soured. "I can't figure out where they've been getting copies, I've looked in the libraries. They've all been checked out." Her hand hesitated over the cover. "Do you mind?"

Tsubaki blinked, surprised. "Oh. Um…no, not particularly."

A bright smile warmed the girl's face, and she set her wallet on the counter as she lifted the book in her hands. Tsubaki took her time taping up the boxes, relaxing a bit now that the girl had disappeared into the book – at least she wasn't hurrying her along, like the lemon-bar lady, who came in every Saturday evening, usually on her cell phone and always with a face that looked as though she was holding something very sour in her mouth.

"Somebody, after all, had to make a start." The girl recited quietly, resting her fingertips on the page. Tsubaki stacked the boxes, finished with labeling, and drew out one of the paper bags. "Very true. Where did you get this?"

"I bought it offline." Tsubaki smiled wryly. "It took me a long time to find a copy, even in English. They're rare. It was published in 1979, so not many bookshops sell them anymore, and the few copies they do have online are ridiculously expensive."

"Oh." She sounded disappointed. "My teacher mentioned it in class, and I was hoping to learn more about it. I'll have to wait for the copies at our library to be returned, I guess."

She looked so disappointed. Tsubaki frowned, sliding the boxes into the bag, as the girl turned back to her wallet and dolled out the appropriate amount of money. Then she made a snap decision. The girl seemed trustworthy enough.

"You can borrow it, if you like." Tsubaki said, setting the bag on the counter and taking the money, sliding open the drawer of the till. "If you don't mind that I've underlined some things and commented in the margins. I do that with a lot of books, so I don't lose my thoughts." She laughed a little, slightly embarrassed. "I had a teacher say once that unless you write in a book, you don't really love it. And as long as it's not in pen or anything, it can be erased, and the book's as good as new."

The girl blinked at her with large brown eyes. "Really? It wouldn't be too much trouble?"

"No, of course not." Tsubaki shook her head. "I've read it five times anyway. I just find new points of interest every time I read it, so it's a favorite. Oh, right." She held out a hand. "I'm Shou Tsubaki."

"Fujioka Haruhi." Fujioka-san beamed at her, shaking the offered hand. "But I couldn't borrow one of your favorite books. What if I lost it?"

"I trust you." Tsubaki laughed. "Don't worry, you can always find me here all day on the weekends, and after school till seven all through the week. I don't have anything better to do. Besides, I don't think you're the kind of person to lose or accidentally damage borrowed books, you look too reliable for that."

"I'll give you my phone number." Fujioka-san said, drawing a little notepad out of her bag and clicking her pencil. "Please, don't say anything. I would feel guilty if I didn't. I don't even know you and I'm borrowing your book, the least I can do is give you a way of checking up on it."

Before Tsubaki could say anything else, the little piece of paper had been torn off, folded, and pressed into her hand. She curled her fingers around it automatically as Fujioka-san took the paper bag off the counter, smiling. The book – _A Noble Treason: The Revolt of the Munich Students Against Hitler_ – she slid into her bag, carefully, as though handling something precious.

"I'll try to have this back to you by next week." Fujioka-san promised. "Would it be all right if we talk more then?"

"Yeah, of course." Tsubaki hesitated, then scribbled her own cell number on a return slip and passed it across the counter. "So you know who's calling."

"Thank you." She slid that into her bag, too, and started for the door. "See you next week, Shou-san."

"Yeah." Tsubaki lifted her hand and gave a little wave, and Fujioka-san returned it before the door tinkled shut behind her.

Of course, the moment the quiet descended over the shop again, Tsubaki realized her mistake: loaning her book to Fujioka-san meant that, until she managed to sneak back into the staff room and grab her bookbag, she had nothing to read.

Sighing even deeper than before, Tsubaki pillowed her head on her arms, falling into a dreamy half-doze as the sun warmed her neck and spine. No one else came into the shop until closing time at six PM. A slow day, indeed.

"Tsubaki-chan!"

Tsubaki lifted her head from her wrists, peering through the shop at the tall blonde woman who had appeared like a wraith behind the chocolate section. Marie-san smiled faintly, blue eyes sparkling.

"I don't think you should sleep on the glass. You'll drool on it."

"Thank you." Tsubaki replied, her voice woven with sarcasm. "I really appreciate that."

"Aw, don't be mad." Marie-san set her finger against her lips, smiling. "I was just teasing. But really, you should go home. It's seven-thirty, or haven't you noticed?"

"Seven-thirty?" Her voice rose three octaves, high enough to make the windows rattle. "_Seven-thirty_?"

"Yes, I thought I'd come in and wake you up, otherwise you would be late for –"

"Oh my God, no!" Tsubaki wriggled out of her apron and darted back into the staffroom. After a few seconds, she turned around, stuck her head back into the main room, said, "See you tomorrow, Marie-san!" before bolting into the one restroom and practically tearing the uniform of Délice off. The uniform – pale blue, knee length skirt, short sleeves with white cuffs, and a full apron with a frill around the edge, a traditional maid uniform that ordinarily Tsubaki would have had nothing to do with – was hung on a hook, buttoned neatly up the back, and Tsubaki slid into her own clothes before grabbing her bookbag and bolting out the back door, sliding her amber yellow sunglasses on her nose.

The preschool/daycare facility was close enough to Délice to make being a few minutes late not really matter, but even so, the daycare manager – a woman named Kanazawa Ritsu, who was the only one who knew about Tsubaki's parents and thus the only one willing to stay so late to keep an eye on Yumi – gave her a gently frowning look when Tsubaki skidded into the front yard five minutes late. Most of the other children had been already picked up; just through the glass doors, Tsubaki could see her younger sister, leaning against the wall, down for the count. At least she hadn't started crying today.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry." Tsubaki said quickly, before Ritsu-san could say anything. "Work went late, sorry."

"I don't mind much, but Yumi-chan worked herself up into a panic when you didn't show up. I know your parents are out of town, Tsubaki-chan, and that it's hard for you, but Yumi-chan needs a bit more than being dropped off and picked up from daycare every day."

"Until they come back, I can't give her more." Tsubaki said, in a quiet voice. "Excuse me."

She sidestepped Ritsu-san's questions, sliding open the doors and crouching down so that her eyes were on the same level as her little sister's. "Yumi-chan."

Yumi stirred, lifting one fist to knuckle at her eyes, and smiled faintly when she saw Tsubaki. "Nee-chan. Thought you'd been lost."

"No, I just fell asleep." Tsubaki lifted the little girl up into her arms, and Yumi locked her hands around her neck as she fell back into a sleepy doze. "Sorry, Yumi-chan. I'm sorry."

"It's okay…" Yumi mumbled. Tsubaki stopped for a moment, catching her breath, before plastering a smile on her face to show Ritsu-san and leaving the daycare.

"Have you eaten yet, Yumi-chan?" Tsubaki asked cheerfully, as they passed Délice. From inside, Marie-san waved, and after juggling her bag and her baby sister around for a moment, Tsubaki waved back. "Do you want a cake?"

"Ritsu-nee-chan gave me an onigiri." Yumi lifted her face from Tsubaki's neck, her eyes wide and still hazy with sleep. "I'm not hungry."

"You sure?"

"Mm."

"We'll just go home, then."

"'Kay."

Their apartment was small. Tsubaki didn't have much time to clean it, even on the best of days, so it always looked as though a small bomb had gone off in certain rooms, especially after Yumi had finished playing for the day. But for a little girl of four, Yumi was almost unnaturally conscientious about her things. She cleaned up her own toys, and a few times Tsubaki had caught her trying to drag out a vacuum about twice her height, trying to help. Once, she had accidentally broken the bag of it and ended up drenched in dust. Tsubaki had giggled about it for days afterward, whenever she had seen the stuff.

Yumi was already asleep again, a warm weight against her shoulder. After settling her on the couch, Tsubaki went to the futon cabinet and pulled out one of them, laying it down on the floor. Her mother had always preferred futons over Western beds, and Tsubaki had to admit, having a bed you could fold up and put away gave them more room in an already modest apartment.

"Don't wanna." Yumi murmured, rubbing her eyes with both hands. "I'm not sleepy."

"Of course you aren't." Tsubaki said soothingly, pulling the little girl's uniform up over her head and switching it with a pajama top. "I have to do the dishes now, though. Can you help me with something?"

"Mm."

"Can you dream something for me?" It was a game she'd played with Yumi since Yumi was first able to speak, obnoxiously early, at eighteen months. Yumi blinked slowly at her. "Something happy, with Mom and Dad in it. Dream something like that for me."

"Mm-hm."

"Good girl." Tsubaki kissed her forehead. "That's an assignment from me to you. Go ahead and start dreaming."

Yumi nodded, crawled into the futon, and promptly passed out, and Tsubaki watched her enviously for a moment. _What I would give to be able to sleep like that._

She shook her head abruptly, getting to her feet and beating the floor off her black cargo shorts. She really did have dishes to do, and then homework and then bed. There was leftover food in the fridge she could warm up while finishing her homework.

For an instant, her eyes burned. Then Tsubaki shook her head firmly, picking up her bookbag as she headed into the kitchen. Time enough to mope later. Now was the time to finish things that needed to be done.

–

"I'm home!"

Haruhi closed the door gently behind her, letting out a deep sigh of relief. She'd managed to escape the rest of the club before sunset, which, on a weekend, was a thing to boast about. Tamaki-senpai had tried to get her to stay longer, but she'd escaped by telling them she still had homework to do – slightly untrue, but needed in the circumstances – and asking quite pointedly whether they had finished their own assignments. Judging by the stricken look on Tamaki-senpai's face, at least one of them had not.

Her dad wasn't there; he had work at the bar tonight, and wouldn't be back until at least three in the morning. That meant that while she would have to make enough food for two, half of it would have to go directly into the fridge to wait her dad's return. A quiet evening ahead of her.

Or so she thought.

"Haruhi!" Mei stuck her head out from the living room. She had a popsicle in her mouth, making her voice sound quite muffled. "Welcome home!"

"Mei-chan!" Haruhi blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"Still had the key, I let myself in and made you dinner, so praise me." Mei pulled the popsicle from her mouth, dangling it over her bare leg; it was violently blue, and left smears on her mouth. "Out with the boys?"

"I wouldn't call them the boys, that makes it sound interesting and exciting. This was just exhausting." Haruhi shrugged off her bag, setting it on the living room table as Mei replaced the popsicle to hide a smile. "I found a new bakery, though. The clerk lent me a book. And consider yourself praised. It looks good."

"Friendly clerk." Mei's eyebrows rose. "Male?"

"No."

"Not one of those Zuka Club members in disguise, was it?"

"No!"

"Thank God." Mei scowled. "I don't know what Tamaki and the others would do if they stole you again." Mei had been told the story by Hani-senpai. "Anyway, go on. Was she…_like_ the Zuka Club members?"

"Again, no." Haruhi sighed, putting her hands together. "_Itadakimasu_. You're very curious today, Mei-chan."

"I'm bored." Mei answered. "Did you get her name, at least?"

"Shou Tsubaki." Haruhi picked up her fork, pleased to see that the omurice was still warm. "It really does look good, Mei-chan, thank you."

"Shou?" Mei pulled the now bare popsicle stick, stained a lurid blue, out of her mouth to tap it against her lips. "Shou. Sounds familiar."

"She might go to your school, it was around there."

"Ah, that's it. Shou Tsubaki. She's in my year, but she's in class B. She's the one with brown hair that's always in a ponytail or something, right?"

"Yeah." Haruhi swallowed her mouthful of fried rice. "She works at the Délice Patisserie, down by your school. That was where I was dragged, so I ended up buying some cakes to distract them, and she loaned me her book."

"What book?"

Haruhi indicated her bag, where the title of _A Noble Treason_ was peeking out the top. Mei whistled, long and low.

"Heavy reading. Can you understand English?"

"Enough." Haruhi shrugged. "If I get confused I can just ask Tamaki-senpai, he's always happy to help out with translating things."

"I forgot, you're going to the top school in Japan." Mei sighed, tilting her head back. "So you can understand that stuff."

"Once you get the hang of it, it isn't that difficult."

"Says the top of her class at the top school in Japan."

Haruhi said nothing. Mei did have a point, after all.

"So did you bring me anything delightful from this bakery you found?" Mei asked, her mouth still blue from the popsicle. Haruhi gave her a level look.

"Mei-chan, you just had something sugary, do you want to get a cavity?"

"They were that good? I'll have to visit them after school tomorrow."

"From what Shou-san said it sounds like they're pretty busy during the week, it'd be a better idea for you to go on Saturday or Sunday."

"Wouldn't those be the busier days, though, since it's the weekend?"

"Now that you mention it…"

"Ha-ha, Haruhi missed a point of logic."

"I'm tired. You would be too if the twins dragged you all over the amusement park."

"Been there, done that, girl. Remember the arcade incident?"

"I gave most of those away to the pediatrics ward at the hospital, I didn't need every single stuffed animal from every single arcade on that street."

"I know you kept that spotted dog toy, though. And if you say you didn't I'll tear your room apart until I find it, because I _know_ you kept it."

"It was cute."

"And you kept it."

"It had a spot on its eye, didn't it?"

"And you kept it."

"You really are good at making omurice, Mei-chan."

"Hey, don't change the subject."

"What did you do at school today? Was it fun?"

"Haruhi, quit acting like my father."

"If I was your father I would be offering you a doll."

"Point taken. I'll drop it about the dog thing. And school was good."

Haruhi spooned the last bit of omurice into her mouth, a little triumphant at averting the subject of the little stuffed dog currently hidden behind some clothes at the top of her closet.

–

Exactly one week later, Tsubaki was minding the store again – it was far more crowded on a weekday than it had been on Sunday, though it was still a slow week for Délice – when Fujioka Haruhi reappeared, looking a little hesitant in the huge crowd of people. It took a few minutes for Tsubaki to spot her, and a few seconds longer to recognize her – she was dealing with a family of seven with a pair of squalling twins, insisting on another pair of cinnamon buns even though Tsubaki had informed them several times there wouldn't be any more cinnamon buns for another hour at least, because that was when Marie-san made the new batch.

"Shou-san." Fujioka-san said nervously, narrowly dodging the crotchety lemon-bar lady and waving. "Is now a bad time?"

"Oh." Tsubaki blinked as Rin smacked two bags into her hands, hissing, "Make them pay or throw them out of here!" "No, this is fine. I'll meet you outside, just let me –"

"Excuse me, are you going to be bringing me my order anytime soon?" Lemon-bar lady said irritably, holding her cell phone away from her ear. Apparently she'd come late this week. Business trip over Saturday, perhaps. "I've been waiting here fifteen minutes."

"I'm sorry, we're a little crowded at the moment." Tsubaki said acidly, inputting the price of the sour old woman's four lemon bars and handing over the family of seven's two bulging bags. _In case you hadn't noticed._"And there are no more cinnamon buns for at least another hour, that's my last word on that. Rin, I'm taking my break, all right?"

"What?" Rin yelped, one hand full of chocolate torte, the other holding a bag of vanilla drop cookies. "You can't – Tsubaki!"

Tsubaki had already untied her apron, hung it on the hook, slid out from behind the counter, and squeezed her way out of the shop, releasing a heavy breath of relief the moment the door clicked shut behind her.

Fujioka-san was sitting on the bench in front of the shop, Tsubaki's book held in both hands on her lap. She looked relieved to be out of the crush of people, and Tsubaki couldn't blame her.

"Is it always like that?" She asked, handing over _A Noble Treason_. Tsubaki shook her head.

"No, usually they're polite enough to wait their turn. Lemon-bar lady always stirs things up." Tsubaki took the book and dropped down onto the bench next to Fujioka-san, sighing deeply. "Rin's good with people, she'll be able to handle it on her own for a few minutes."

"Thank you for loaning the book to me." Fujioka-san said. "It was an interesting read. I don't know if I have a millimeter of their courage. I don't know if I would be able to do that."

"I don't know either." Tsubaki said, smoothing her hands over the cover. "I like to think that if something like that happened, I would be able to stand up to it, but…" She shrugged. "Hard to say. Glad you liked reading it."

"Have you read the actual leaflets?"

"'Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be 'governed' without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct.'" Tsubaki said. The words of the first leaflet seemed to fold out before her closed eyes. "'It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any concept of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes – crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure – reach the light of day?'"

She took a deep breath. "'If the German people are already so corrupted and spiritually crushed that they do not raise a hand, frivolously trusting in a questionable faith in lawful order in history; if they surrender man's highest principle, that which raises him above all other God's creatures, his free will; if they abandon the will to take decisive action and turn the wheel of history and thus subject it to their own rational decision; if they are so devoid of all individuality, having already gone so far along the road toward turning into a spiritless and cowardly mass – then, yes, they deserve their downfall.'"

Fujioka-san simply stared at her for a moment. "That was word for word?"

"Kind of." Tsubaki shifted with embarrassment. She hadn't meant to continue the quote for so long. "I like quotes."

"You have a wonderful memory." Fujioka-san said, looking envious. "I wish I could read something and then repeat it so easily."

"I read their leaflets all the time." Tsubaki said, opening the book and pulling a few sheets of folded paper out of the back of the dust cover. "The only thing that would have made this book better would be if the author had put the six leaflets into the back as a sort of appendix. It seems a bit odd that a book on the White Rose would only have excerpts of their leaflets inside."

"It does." Fujioka-san agreed. Then she leaned back against the bench, her short hair falling back out of her eyes as she tilted her head up towards the sky. "It's so beautifully written. I wish I could write like that."

"I would have liked meeting them." Tsubaki closed the book again, sadness filling her throat. "I would have liked to talk to them, just once."

Fujioka-san nodded silently. After a few seconds of quiet, Tsubaki leapt to her feet, dashing the welling tears away from her eyes.

"I'm sorry for sounding so depressed, it's just thinking about them always makes me a little sad." Tsubaki said, holding the book in both hands. "Like I said, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I kind of have to get back to work. I'm not off until seven-thirty, and then I have to go and pick up my little sister from the daycare near here."

"Don't you have homework? Can't your parents pick her up?" Fujioka-san inquired, looking surprised. Tsubaki hesitated, and a flash of understanding sped over the other girl's face. "Oh. I see. How long has it been since they died?"

The bluntness of the question startled Tsubaki into answering. "They're not dead!"

Fujioka-san gave her a sharp look, and opened her mouth to speak, but Tsubaki was already backing quickly away.

"I'm sorry, I really have to go – I might see you around."

"Shou-san!"

Tsubaki ducked back into the bakery, snatched her apron off of her stool, and plunged into working out a dispute between two families with young children over devil's food cake.

"What's gone and made you so irritable?" Rin hissed, once the huge family had finally left the patisserie and Tsubaki had slumped back onto her stool, trying to forget about them. "You look like lemon-bar lady."

The nickname for the sour woman had spread amongst the employees of Délice. Of course, if lemon-bar lady ever knew why they called her lemon-bar lady, she would probably stop buying their lemon bars, but it didn't particularly matter. Lemon-bar lady would be no great loss.

"Nothing." Tsubaki said woodenly, impaling the receipts on the little brass spike next to the cash register. "Sorry for abandoning you, I just loaned a book out and needed to get it back."

"They asked about your parents, didn't they?" Rin said, leaning against the back counter. Tsubaki glanced at her, and Rin shrugged. "I overheard you talking about it with Marie-san. Look, if your parents are stupid enough to head off on a jaunt and leave behind a sixteen year old to take care of her kid sister, that's their problem. Not your fault."

"I guess." Tsubaki said unwillingly. If she didn't reply, Rin would never let it go.

"Don't say 'I guess' like that." Rin said, slapping Tsubaki on the back of the head with her order pad. She'd been working in the café part of the shop until the bakery had been swamped. "You either believe me or you don't and I can tell you don't. So don't lie and say 'I guess' like some little kid. It's just been three months now, Tsubaki, I would have thought you would have realized something by now."

Tsubaki gave her a dirty look, rubbing the back of her head. "That hurt."

"Good. Maybe it'll snap you out of it. I swear to God, you should take your aunt up on her offer and live with her, it'll stop you from running yourself ragged all the time."

"Yumi hates our aunt." Tsubaki pointed out. "And there's no point to it, my parents should be back soon."

"You said that four weeks ago. Come on, if you're not going to stay with your aunt, at least stay with a friend. Marie-san and Ryouji-san live above the shop, I'm sure they'd let you stay with them, as hard as you work for them."

"I couldn't impose like that."

"Get your head out of the clouds." Rin aimed another smack at Tsubaki's head with the pad, which Tsubaki dodged. "It wouldn't be an imposition, they'd be doing you a favor. Marie-san adores your kid sister, remember that day last week when Yumi-chan had to stick around in the back and we nearly closed up shop because Marie-san couldn't bake anything for playing with her?"

"Hereby classifying it as an imposition." Tsubaki lifted a hand, pointing at the ceiling. "You have to do it yourself, no one else will do it for you. You must work out your own salvation."

"Quit with the quoting and listen to me." Rin snapped. "You're working too hard. It's going to make you sick. What'll happen to Yumi-chan if something happens to you? Just stop being so damn proud and accept help, because like it or not, you need some. When was the last time you did something you wanted, instead of something you had to do?"

"Mom asked me to watch over Yumi and that's what I'm going to do." Tsubaki said coolly, taking Rin's order pad from her so she couldn't be hit in the head again. "She's depending on me to take care of her."

"Who is? Yumi? Or your mom?" When Tsubaki said nothing, Rin sighed deeply and put her hands on her hips. "I've tried. You can't say I haven't tried. Your choice, so what happens is on your head. Look, can you go back into the kitchens? Eichi said he wanted to talk to you."

"Joy."

Rin smirked at the expression on her face. "Don't look like that, either, just because you're getting called to the manager's office doesn't mean you're going to lose your job. I'll watch the counter, don't worry."

"I wouldn't." Tsubaki retorted. "Apparently there's no point."

"Good for you."

Tsubaki stuck her tongue out at the other clerk before ducking through the Staff Only door, turning left at the bathroom, and pausing in front of the stairs. The door to the manager's room had been left open, and through it, she could see Eichi – twenty-four, working on his university degree, all-around workaholic – bent over his papers, scowling as he read something.

Tsubaki knocked lightly on the door, and Eichi looked up, visibly brightening. "Ah, Tsubaki-chan, come in. I wanted to talk to you about something. Just let me finish this form."

Tsubaki hesitated before sitting in the chair in front of his desk, locking her hands neatly on her knees as she waited. Finally, Eichi capped his ball-point pen and steepled his fingers, studying her carefully.

"How long have you been working here, Tsubaki-chan?"

"Four months next week." Tsubaki replied, after a few seconds of calculation. "I've been working the weekend shift for about three and a half months, ever since –"

"Ever since your parents left." Eichi finished for her. He looked unusually serious. "I appreciate that you came to us immediately afterwards, asking for more work. If you had kept it secret, that would make taking this order very difficult."

"Excuse me, but…what are you talking about?" Tsubaki asked quizzically. Her heart dropped like a stone. "Am I being fired?"

"No, no." Eichi shook his head. "No, you're not being fired. Your work for us has been very, very good, as well as your honesty, which is precisely why I'm asking this question…"

He leaned forward, resting his chin on both hands, and looked her right in the eye. "Can you ride a bicycle?"

–

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Tsubaki muttered, dismounting the bike and beating the dust off her skirt with one hand. A few people who passed her on the sidewalk gave her funny looks and sped up, as though frightened she was about to take out a butcher knife and attack them, and Tsubaki sighed.

"Now I _seriously_ can't believe that I'm doing this."

The powder blue bike buzzed along at her side as Tsubaki walked it down the road, the bag of sweets in the front basket shifting a little with the movement. Whatever she had expected when entering Eichi's manager room, it hadn't been being hired for a delivery service.

"It's a new idea of Marie-san's." Eichi had explained the afternoon before, seeing the look on her face. "You're cute, so you'll be a good delivery girl. Rin can't ride a bicycle."

_And you have such a big crush on her you don't want her to leave the bakery. So that's why she was smirking so triumphantly. I'm going to kill her…_

Of course, the fact that she was being paid an extra ¥1000 for every delivery helped with the weekly grocery bill. Even if she looked like the stupidest thing on two wheels, she definitely wasn't giving up that money.

Tsubaki stopped before the ostentatious golden gates, feeling sweat trickle down the back of her neck. Who knew what these rich people wanted with cakes from Délice. At least it meant she would be paid.

Carefully, after wiping the sweat on her palms off on her skirt, she pushed the button on the intercom. "Um. Excuse me?"

"This isn't a place for loitering, little girl." The voice crackled out so briskly it made her jump. "Move on. You're not supposed to be here."

"Well, actually, I am." Tsubaki said, more than a little irritated. _Little girl?_ "I'm from Délice. We had an order put in for some cakes yesterday afternoon, I'm here to deliver them to a…um." She fumbled the card out of the bag. "To a Suou Tamaki-san. So do I have permission to enter the grounds, or not?"

There was a short silence. Then something beeped, and the huge golden gates began to open.

"Thank you." Tsubaki said into the intercom. The fact that no one replied was answer enough; she swung her leg over her bike again and began to work her way up the road from the staff entrance.

_Nice man. Definitely could use a job as a strongman for the yakuza. Oh, wait. Maybe he already is. Bastard._

The grounds were magnificent. Exquisite. Green and lush, she could practically smell all the money that had been dumped into building this place, and of the students attending classes (though right now, it would probably be club hours for these ultra-richies.

_Envy is the most stupid of vices, for there is no single advantage to be gained from it._

Tell that to the children of the richest people in all of Japan.

Tsubaki unfolded the piece of paper Eichi had given her, studying the simple map. If this was the main building, like it seemed to be, then she had to go in and take that door, go up the stairs…

Without a doubt, even as beautiful as the outside was, the inside was a marvel of architecture and art. She had left her bike hidden behind some bushes, to ensure that it wouldn't make skid marks on the highly polished floors, but now she was feeling nervous about her shoes – would they make the same sort of scuff marks? What would the maids here do if she dropped the cakes all over the floor? Strongman-guy would probably come tearing up from his guard duty post and throw her out by the back of her uniform, and then she really would get fired because this was the first delivery she'd ever made and if she failed at it she'd end up a loser –

_Snap out of it. _She gave herself a stern mental slap._Marie-san isn't going to fire you if you mess up a delivery. If you get thrown out, you get thrown out. Quit working yourself up into a tizzy._

Up the crimson-carpeted stairs, past the libraries and the classrooms, all the way through to the music department. Tsubaki glanced up at the sign over the door, making sure that she hadn't managed to get herself lost. No, this was the third music room, just as it said on the directions. Third music room, Ouran Academy, Tokyo, Japan. Kind of a flamboyant address, but at least she knew she was in just the right place.

Tsubaki took a deep breath and opened the door, preparing for the onslaught.

"Welcome."

If Tsubaki had had any voice left, she probably would have screamed.

Five boys – five uncommonly, startlingly good looking boys – were staring at her, each of them dressed in the traditional garb of ancient Hittite kings. Long white tunics, traditional open toed sandals, brightly colored sashes, even earrings, though they were clip-ons, with the sashes ranging in color from crimson to plum. She had either gone completely insane from the stress Rin had been mentioning, or she had stumbled into an alternate dimension. Or both. Either way.

Then one of them – a small and slender boy, with short cropped, dark brown hair and large, honey brown eyes – blinked and stood up, sweeping forward. "Shou-san, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at work?"

_And so Alice fell into Wonderland._

_Or…something like that._

* * *

_-san: contrary to popular belief, -san does not mean Mr. or Ms. -san doesn't mean anything, in particular, other than the fact that you have either just met and/or have respect for a person of equal status to you. Typically, if you use -san with someone you are close with, that means you're very polite. If you don't use -san with someone you've just met, you're very open and almost rude._

_-chan: a term used between close friends, and to lower status people (younger sisters, as seen above.) -chan is also used to describe cute things, like "koneko-chan!" (kitten-chan)_

_Itadakimasu: it literally means, I recieved from someone higher than me. Itadakimasu is used in Japan before eating a meal._

_Omurice: A Japanese dish made of an omelet made with fried rice._

_So, there's the first chapter of _Wonderland_! Hope you enjoyed. Reviews mean peppermint fudge._


	2. Chapter 2

_DISCLAIMER: I do not own any aspect of _Ouran High School Host Club. _The club and all of its accoutrements belongs to the honorable Hatori Bisco-sensei._

_Chapter Two has arrived. While this story is OC centric, there IS a great deal of the host club soon, so please be patient with her. The reason I have such long chapters is that so much is going on in Tsubaki's life that I can't really fit it all into five pages, and I need to really get her character down before I do anything really involving the Host Club._

_But trust me. They play a ENORMOUS part in _Wonderland._ Seriously. Just trust me._

_WARNING: Swearing and questioning of sexual orientation below. Rating...the less graphic side of PG-13._

**

* * *

**

Chapter Two

_It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.  
_~ Alice

"_What is going on here?_"

Her voice had a funny squeaky tone to it. Tsubaki sank heavily into the chair Fujioka-san had offered, unable to take her eyes off the boy's – girl's – boy's face.

"Haruhi, do you know this person?" One of the absolutely gorgeous boys – blonde hair, like Marie-san, only with very pretty purple eyes – slid up out of his chair, looking surprised. The necklaces that went with the Hittite prince costume clicked around his neck; his sash was crimson. "A friend of yours?"

"Kind of – Shou-san, what are you doing here?"

"This, then, is the question." Tsubaki quoted uneasily, trying to slide further backwards before remembering that she was sitting down and thus couldn't go beyond the back of the chair. "Fujioka-san – you are Fujioka-san, right?"

"Of course I am." Fujioka-san said gently, stepping back out of her space and catching the blonde by the elbow. "Not now, senpai. She's not a customer, so back off."

At the scowl on her face, the blonde promptly retreated behind one of the sofas, peering over the top of it at the both of them. Tsubaki would have laughed, if her brain hadn't been completely imprisoned by shock and confusion. He'd been brought to his knees by a dirty look.

"Shou-san, what are you doing here? I thought you had your work until seven."

"Delivery." Tsubaki lifted the bag with the cake boxes up from her lap. She was regaining control of herself, now. She could do this. She could pretend she was most definitely not surrounded by four – maybe five – extremely good looking males so she could speak coherently and rationally. "Délice does deliveries. Someone named Suou Tamaki-san ordered these for this time yesterday afternoon." _If I deliver the cakes I can escape and pretend that I never saw any of this._

"You're right on time, if it's any consolation." The boy with dark hair and rimless glasses studied her, analyzing; his sash was dark plum.. _That's Suou Tamaki? _"You would be the Shou Tsubaki-san who loaned the White Rose book to Haruhi, is that correct?"

"What?" She blinked. "Um. Yes. That's me."

"Kyouya-senpai!" Fujioka-san whirled on the dark-haired boy this time, who looked supremely unconcerned. _Oh. Not Suou Tamaki. _"You knew she was coming?"

"I did not know that she, specifically, was coming. They said they were sending an employee."

"I hate it when you do that." Fujioka-san said, drier and far calmer than before as she fiddled with her sky blue sash. "Just how much merit was there in seeing how I would react?"

"None, actually." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "Simply interest."

"Excuse me." Tsubaki said, getting carefully to her feet and setting the bag of cake on the coffee table. "But what exactly is happening? Is this a costume party?" She glanced at Fujioka-san. "And who exactly are you? What on earth is going on here?"

"A worthy question, Shou-hime!"

Tsubaki yelped as a hand ensnared her own, spinning her around into a waltz-like twirl. By the time she'd regained her eyesight again, she'd been swept quite literally off her feet, only kept from falling flat on the floor by an arm around her waist. Tsubaki could already feel the blood rising in her face, and a strong desire to shove him away, but before she could move, she'd been twirled again, and released; only her hand remained captive.

"Please let me go." She said, but her voice was so tiny that the blonde didn't hear.

"Ouran is a school where two things are valued above all." The blonde said, far too close; Tsubaki tried to step back and found that despite the fact the grip on her hand felt light, she couldn't yank her fingers free. "The first is social standing, and the second, of course, is money. Thus the Ouran Host Club is where the handsome young men of Ouran, we who self-admittedly have far too much time on our hands –"

"He's right about that much, at least." Fujioka-san muttered.

"– entertain the delicate young ladies of Ouran, who also have far too much time on their hands." Tsubaki's own hand was growing pink from the strain she was putting on it trying to escape. "It is the playground of the super –"

She'd had enough. With a quick jerk and a twist, Tsubaki turned, put her strength into it, and threw the blonde over her shoulder.

He landed on the floor with a crash, looking more startled than hurt, and Tsubaki backed quickly out of reach again, panting heavily. She hated having to throw people. More often than not it meant that she'd just lost a customer.

"I told you she wasn't a customer, Tamaki-senpai." Fujioka-san said exasperatedly. Tsubaki opened her mouth to speak, but no noise came out except a funny sort of squeak – she had just thrown Suou Tamaki, the person who had sent for the cakes.

There was no way she wasn't getting fired now.

"I am so sorry!" Tsubaki bowed, inwardly screaming, _Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!_ Two of the other actors – they had to be actors, that was the only reason they would be dressed up like that – were laughing so hard tears were coming out their eyes. Twins, but different hair colors. The dark-haired one had a bright orange sash; the lighter wore light green. "I didn't know that you were – I am so, so sorry. Please accept my humblest apologies."

She snatched up the bag of cakes and set them carefully in Suou-san's lap. He hadn't yet stood up from the floor, and he seemed to be thinking quite hard about something. "Here are the cakes you ordered. As a further apology for me throwing you, you don't have to pay for them."

"Shou-san, that's really not necessary." Fujioka-san lifted both hands. "It's good for him. Honestly. And you can't go without being paid, I know how long it takes to get here from Délice on a bicycle – well, no, actually I don't, but I know how long it takes on foot and it's too exhausting for you to not be paid for your trouble in coming all the way out here –"

"Please don't!"

Her voice came out sharper than she'd meant it to. Fujioka-san stopped, looking a little hurt, and Tsubaki couldn't take it anymore; she whirled and bolted out of the room, running back the way she had come.

–

"Get. Out."

Rin leaned forward, resting her elbows on the center table as Tsubaki stripped down to her camisole, shrugging on the button up shirt of the uniform. "He seriously tried to sweep you off your feet, and you used a judo move on him?"

"You weren't there." Tsubaki said, peevishly fingering the buttons. _I wasn't telling this story to be laughed at._ "You probably would have done the same thing."

"Hell, girl, if he really does look like how you described, I'd let him do whatever the hell he wanted to me and be happy about it, what with the bad luck I've been having with men lately." Rin sighed happily. "The problem here is that you didn't, which leads to certain sexuality questions I've been meaning to ask you."

"Frankly, I don't see how my sexual orientation is any of your business." Tsubaki said coolly. She'd long since grown used to how Rin brought up the most delicate of subjects in the most indelicate way possible, oftentimes in front of her four year old sister. The most recent of those had been Rin asking (in not-quite-polite terms) whether Tsubaki had had her first kiss yet, and offering to arrange something with one of her "friends." She had had to deal with Yumi's questions about kissing all the way back home, where Tsubaki had distracted her by putting on Doraemon and firmly changing the subject whenever she asked another question.

Yumi wasn't stupid. She probably knew exactly what Tsubaki was doing by asking her about her day rather than answering her questions. If Tsubaki knew her obnoxiously precocious little sister at all, Yumi would lie in wait and ask her when she least expected it.

"I've never met your boyfriend." Rin leaned forward, studying her carefully. "Does that mean you're gay?"

"You've never seen a boyfriend because I don't have one." Tsubaki rolled her eyes. "Just because I'm single doesn't mean I'm gay."

"Fine, if that's what you want to believe, that's what you want to believe, but just so you know, I don't operate on your wavelength, so please don't include me in any fantasies."

"Rin!" Tsubaki paused, the shirt halfway buttoned. "That's – you – like I would ever –"

"What?"

Tsubaki sighed. "Never mind." _If I ever had a fantasy about you I would probably throw myself off Tokyo Tower._

"I'm going to take my break if you're going on duty." Rin pushed her chair back, heading for the back door. "And I asked Marie-san, she said you don't have to pay us back for losing that thousand yen."

_When did you tell Marie-san?_

"If you don't get your ass out into that main shop within thirty seconds I will personally throw you out there even if you're half naked." Rin said, so calmly that it took a moment for the words to penetrate Tsubaki's head. "Okay?"

"'Kay."

"Good."

Precisely twenty-one seconds later, Tsubaki was perched on her stool again, paging through the book she had started when Fujioka-san had borrowed her copy of _A Noble Treason_: _The_ _Selected Works of Cicero._ She'd finally been able to grab it from the library the afternoon before, taking advantage of the fact that the library was between her school and Délice.

_A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation._ That was Cicero, wasn't it? Tsubaki picked up the pen they used to sign off receipts with, writing it on the back of her paper bookmark. She'd check it when she took her break. There was a computer they were allowed to use in the manager's office.

"Waaa, it smells so nice in here!"

Tsubaki bookmarked her spot, smiling at the expression on the grade-schooler's face. He looked like he had just entered his own personal paradise – his brown eyes were sparkling with complete and utter delight. He must have been at least a little foreign, like Tsubaki herself was (her brown hair was a throwback to her grandmother, an Englishwoman), because he had honey-blonde hair, tousled by the wind outside.

"Yes, it does." Tsubaki agreed, putting _Cicero _aside and resting her elbows on the counter, smiling at him. He reminded her a bit of Yumi, with that breathless excitement. "Anything I can get – for either of you?" She amended, catching sight of the tall, dark man who had come in with the little boy.

The man shook his head slightly, a half smile on his face as he kept a weather eye on the tiny blonde scampering around the patisserie, and Tsubaki nodded, her fingers straying back towards her book.

"Well, please, feel free to ask me if you need anything."

"Takashi, Takashi!" The blonde pressed both hands against the glass, peering down at the chocolate corridor. Caught in the crook of his elbow, an enormous pink rabbit stared dolefully at the floor. "Look! Sachertorte!"

"Aa."

_They're so cute!_ Tsubaki hid another smile behind her book, not having the heart to point out the signs saying "Please do not touch the glass." They had to be brothers – they were obviously too close not to be some kind of relatives. Maybe cousins at the very most.

"Hey, hey!" The blonde peeped over the top of _Cicero_. "What would you get, Baki-chan?"

Tsubaki lamented the nickname, probably brought on by Rin's bad karma with men, and promptly resolved to have her nametag removed from the front of her uniform before the question registered. "What would I get?"

"Mm-hm." He nodded.

"Well…"

She slid off her stool, gravitating towards the chocolate corridor, before hesitating. That expression – sparkling eyes, eager face, practically wriggling in anticipation – was compelling her to be completely truthful.

Tsubaki turned, walked a few feet back along the counter, and pointed at the crème brûlée with one finger. "I would get one of those, definitely. I like Black Forest _gateau_, but crème brûlée is my absolute favorite."

The little boy beamed at her.

"I like those too! Chocolate mousse, too, and caramel flan – hey, hey, do you want to eat some with us?"

It was so hard to resist that face.

"I would if I could, but I just came on duty and I can't leave the shop until seven-thirty. We're also not allowed to eat any of the merchandise." _Not out here, anyway. Marie-san's freebies keep us going, but only in private. _"And after that I have to go and pick up my baby sister." She smiled. Yumi would love this boy, if she met him. "Maybe another time?"

"Aww." Tears filled those eyes. "But –"

"Mitsukuni."

Mitsukuni-kun glanced up at his brother/cousin/relative, studying him for a moment, before sighing deeply and blinking the tears away. There were still some teardrops on his lashes when he nodded sadly, and mumbled. "Okay."

_Sooo cute!_

"Oh, right, Baki-chan." Mitsukuni-kun gleamed at her again. "This is Morinozuka Takashi. He's my cousin. Takashi, this is Tsubaki-chan."

"Nice to meet you." Tsubaki said, bowing formally. It was a little odd, being introduced as "Tsubaki-chan" after a five minute acquaintance, but she was already dangerously unable to resist that face.

"Aa."

_Doesn't talk much, does he?_ Well, actually it kind of fit, considering how Mitsukuni-kun was such a chatterbox.

"Aw…" Mitsukuni-kun pouted slightly, staring into the chocolate corridor with a dreamy look on his face. "I don't know what I should get, it all looks so good."

Tsubaki hesitated. Then, slowly, she set _Cicero_ – which she had been holding in one hand all through the conversation – onto the counter. She'd done this before, of course, and it usually ended up working, but to ask direct questions about it…

"Well, how about this?" She lifted a hand, setting it against her chest. "I'll ask you some questions, and I'll pick for you depending on your answers. I'm good at picking desserts for people – at least, I've been told that. And if you don't like it, you can pick your own. Would that be okay, Mitsukuni-kun?"

"A game?" He blinked once or twice before breaking out into an enormous smile, beating even the one he'd given at first seeing the crème brûlée. "Okay!"

Tsubaki pulled the stool around, settling herself on it. Then, she cleared her throat, thought for a moment – she already had something in mind for this boy, but she'd agreed to the game, so she had to play it out for a little while at least – and began.

"Okay. Which one do you like better, strawberries or blueberries?"

"Strawberries."

_Knew that for a fact._ She shoved the thought away. "Chocolate or vanilla?"

Mitsukuni-kun hummed for a few seconds, clearly thinking hard. Then, after a few bars of a Mozart concerto (_where did he learn that?_) he said, tentatively, "Vanilla."

_Knew that too._ "Whipped cream or icing?"

"Icing."

"Cake or pie?"

"Cake."

"Okay. One or two?"

Mitsukuni-kun blinked at her, but, dutifully, thought it over for a second. "Two."

"You're getting a strawberry shortcake."

That went over far better than she had expected. After a few minutes, she found herself wrapping up not a single shortcake (each one was about the size of her fist), but an entire set of them, four nestled in individual boxes inside one bigger box, as well as a little tin of crème brûlée. Finally, once Tsubaki had settled everything into the paper bag, the shop door opened again.

It was Yumi. Her face was red with fury, her hair – brown, like hers and their mother's – dusty and knotted, and her uniform streaked with dirt. But she wasn't crying, though telltale streaks in the dust on her face said that she had been a few minutes before at the most. Without a word, she stalked into the patisserie, turned to face the counter, and stopped, staring at Tsubaki with hurt and frustrated eyes.

Tsubaki nearly dropped the bag she was holding. Without a word, she handed it across to Morinozuka-san, hurried around the counter, and lifted her sister up into her arms, threading her fingers through her tangled brown hair. Mitsukuni-kun had fallen silent, watching her with surprisingly sharp eyes, and Morinozuka-san remained stoic. Tsubaki swallowed.

"I'm sorry, could you excuse me for a minute?" She pulled the string to ring the bell in the back room, commanding Rin to the counter. "I have to deal with this. My associate will be more than happy to help you finish your purchase. Thank you."

Her voice was tight even to her own ears. Without waiting for an answer from either of them, she ducked out the door, Yumi clinging to her shoulder.

"Yumi, what on earth are you doing here?" Tsubaki set her sister on the bench, beating the dust off the front of her uniform. Her stomach had contracted to the size of a golf ball. Something had happened. "You're supposed to be spending time with Ritsu-san right now. You're not supposed to leave the school until I come there to get you."

"It's boring." Yumi mumbled. "You're never there to talk to me, and no one else will. Ritsu-nee-chan is always busy. And…"

She fiddled with the hem of her skirt, not speaking. Tsubaki's stomach clenched a little tighter as she put her fingers under Yumi's chin, lifting her head.

"And what? Do the other kids bully you?"

"No." Yumi said, too quickly. "They just…They don't like me playing with them. They say I'm a wimpy teacher's pet and that Mom left because of me."

_Oh, no._

This was the real reason she'd come rushing out. Tears filled Yumi's eyes again, and her face began to screw up. "Mom didn't leave because of me, did she? She didn't leave because I did something bad?"

"_No_."

She must have been more intense than she had meant to be. Yumi was looking at her with huge eyes, the tears forgotten. Oh, well. Too late to be gentle now. Tsubaki put her hands on Yumi's shoulders, squeezing hard.

"Yumi, don't ever say that. Don't even think it. Mom and Dad didn't leave because of you. They would never leave because of anything you did. You're strong and you're smart and you're a beautiful little girl, no Mom in her right mind would ever want to leave you behind."

"Well, then, where are they?" Yumi flared. "Why haven't they been here for so long?"

Tsubaki bit her lip. Her eyes were burning. No. She couldn't show her sister tears, that was completely the wrong thing to do. She had to be strong. The strong older sister. She couldn't lie, either. Yumi was too smart. She already knew how to tell if Tsubaki was lying or not.

"I don't know why, Yumi." Tsubaki shook her head. "I don't know why they haven't come back yet. But don't you _ever _think they left because of anything you did. You could never do anything to drive them away." She lifted her hands, cupping Yumi's face. "I know it's been hard. It's been hard on me, too. You've been left alone all the time, and I'm so, so sorry. I don't want to leave you alone, believe me. I want things to be how they were. But it's probably gonna take a while. So you have to be patient. Okay?"

Yumi bit her lip; multiple emotions were flickering through her eyes as she systematically worked everything out in her mind. Then, slowly, she nodded, tears filling her eyes again, and she put her arms around Tsubaki's neck, pressing her face into the junction between her shoulder and neck.

"I wanna go home." She whispered.

Tsubaki swiped the tears away from her eyes with one hand, hoisting her sister up with the other. "I'm sorry, sweetie, but we can't right now, I have to work. I'll take you upstairs to Marie-san, she can teach you how to make icing from scratch or something, okay? You don't have to go back to Ritsu-san's place today." _And I'm going to be having a word with her about what those kids are calling my little sister._ "Will that be okay, for now? Tomorrow, I promise, I'll take a day off from school and work and we can just spend that together, okay?"

She received no answer, which told her quite clearly how "okay" that was, but also offered silent understanding and acceptance. After taking a moment to breathe, resting her forehead on Yumi's shoulder, she straightened and walked back into the patisserie, passing Mitsukuni-kun and Morinozuka-san on the way out.

–

"She was cute, wasn't she, Takashi?"

Mitsukuni prodded at the strawberry with his fork, smiling faintly. He had already devoured two of the shortcakes they had bought, and was making deep indents in the third, but Mori didn't really have the heart to stop him. From what he'd heard, he had been working very hard on keeping his grades up, and probably hadn't had any time to do anything he liked.

"Aa."

Another part of the cake disappeared. "So, do you think we should call Tama-chan, and tell him that she's not still worried about what happened yesterday?"

Mori shook his head. "Not yet."

"Hmm?" Mitsukuni blinked. "Why not?"

"Apologies."

After a moment, Mitsukuni laughed. "She does seem like that kind of person, doesn't she? To apologize for everything. I wonder why?"

Mori said nothing. He didn't really have to.

"I wonder what happened." The fork stilled on the strawberry, holding it against the plate. "Did you see? When she was talking to her sister. She looked very sad."

"Aa."

There was a moment of silence. Then the rest of the cake vanished, and Mitsukuni picked up the empty boxes.

"Takashi, you have homework, so we should go back to campus and call Haru-chan to say they could probably head over there tomorrow." He sighed lightly. "And I have to work on chemistry. I'm sooo tired…" He slumped against the bench for a second. "High school was so nice, wasn't it, Takashi? Having fun with everyone?"

Mori smiled and ruffled his hair lightly, and Mitsukuni beamed.

"Mm-hm. It really was." He picked up the bag, with the last strawberry shortcake and the crème brûlée inside. "These are really good."

"Aa."

–

Haruhi slid into her seat for homeroom, sighing lightly. Already nearly time for exams again, and then summer break. She'd been trying to convince her father to allow her back to Karuizawa, to work part-time with Misuzu-san again. She knew that the host club would probably show up and make trouble, but that wouldn't be as much of a pain as it had been last year. She'd grown so used to having them around that she had completely forgotten about Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai's graduation a few months before.

The twins were late. Haruhi folded her arms on her desk, half-asleep. She usually woke up easily and without complaint, but there was the odd day – especially during the summer months – when it took three buzzes of the alarm to get her out of bed, and fifteen minutes longer than usual to get ready. Of course, she still managed to get out the door at the same time – she would have been late otherwise, after all – but she was still half asleep, and it had taken a bus transfer in order to wake her up fully.

"Haruhi-kun!"

Kurakano Momoka, the new class vice-president of class 2-A, turned around from her new seat and beamed at Haruhi. Haruhi barely managed to send a passable smile back, but Momoka-san didn't notice; she was clearly worried about something. Her smile didn't have the same sort of brilliance that it usually did.

"Is something wrong?" Haruhi asked, sitting up straighter. "You don't look yourself today, Momoka-san."

Momoka-san bit her lip, her eyes flickering toward the floor. "Well…actually, I'm afraid that you'll be angry with me, Haruhi-kun. I can't designate you as a host anymore."

This was so completely not what Haruhi had expected that she blinked. "Oh?"

"Yes." A dull flush rose in Momoka-san's face. "I'm sorry."

"I see." Haruhi smiled. "That's fine. Are you going to be designating someone new?"

"No." Momoka-san shook her head. "No, I'm not going to the host club anymore. I've decided that it would be the wrong thing to do."

"Wrong?"

The flush grew deeper. "I…well, I…"

Haruhi thought for a moment. Then it hit her, and a wide smile spread across her face. "I see. You like someone, don't you, Momoka-san?"

_Figuring out my own feelings seems to have helped me figuring out others._

Momoka-san twitched so badly that one of her hair-ribbons came loose, and she lost one of her ponytails. "Don't talk so loudly, please! I didn't mean to spring it on you like this –"

"I'm pleased for you." Haruhi turned to open her bag, drawing out one of her textbooks. "The host club will understand, too, I'm positive. It's nice to see you so happy. Are you together?"

Momoka-san blushed even harder, her bangs falling forward to hide her eyes as she bent to grab her ribbon again. "Um…not really, but I've known him for a very long time. And, well, recently, it just sort of, um…changed, and so I though it would be best that I stop attending the host club. Because I don't…"

"I think that's admirable." Her pencil fell out of her bag. "Oops. Anyway, we'll miss you at the host club, but once I explain I'm sure the others will understand. I wish you luck."

Momoka-san smiled shakily, still bright red as she tied the ribbon around her hair again. "Thank you so much. I didn't know if you would be okay with it."

"How could I not be okay with it?" Haruhi's smile grew wider. "I hope you're happy, Momoka-san." _If it's with the person who I think you're talking about, it's pretty much a given he'll be delighted._

"Thank you so much, Haruhi-kun!" With a far brighter smile on her face than before, Momoka-san leaned forward and kissed Haruhi on the cheek before sitting back, beaming. "For listening. You're really easy to talk to."

Haruhi couldn't really say anything. She just blinked a few times. Momoka-san laughed a little and turned around again, pulling her own notebooks from inside her bag as the twins entered the room, both of them looking absolutely exhausted.

"How late were you up studying for this mock-test thing today?" Hikaru accused, sliding in on Haruhi's left. Haruhi blinked.

"Only ten. It's won't be that hard, there's a reason that it's a mock-test, Hikaru."

"You're the top student in the class, of course you're not worried." Hikaru slumped a little. "How late were we up, Kaoru?"

"Two-thirty in the morning." Kaoru said, clearly suppressing an enormous yawn. "You were up until two-thirty."

"How late were you up?" Haruhi asked, strangely fascinated. She'd never pulled an all-nighter like that before. Dish everything up in manageable quantities, that was how she studied.

The enormous yawn couldn't be denied. "F-f-four."

"Three hours of sleep? You'll get sick!"

"And miss the real test? I wish." Kaoru dropped his head onto his desk. "I'm sooo tired right now it's not even funny."

"Well, if you two studied more responsibly you wouldn't stay up until four in the morning trying to cram everything in." Haruhi said, exasperated. Hikaru groaned.

"Don't tell us that now, it'll only make things worse."

"If you fall asleep in class today, I'm not going to be waking you up."

"Aaah, you're so mean!"

"You're the one who was up until two." Haruhi said, a bit waspishly. It was, after all, their own faults, and she wasn't going to jump on the pity-party bandwagon. "And you're the one who was up until four, Kaoru. It's your own faults."

"Oh, right." Hikaru opened his bag, rummaging around in it for a moment before removing a piece of folded paper and handing it across to her. "Here. Hani-senpai called us last night to leave a message for you, your phone was off. About the girl from yesterday? The one from the bakery?"

Kaoru snickered, and Haruhi sighed. The twins probably weren't going to let go of "the girl from the bakery who threw Tamaki-senpai" for a long, long time.

"Oh." Haruhi took the paper, tucking it into her pocket. "Thanks."

The teacher came in, and Haruhi had to be quiet then. Mock-tests. She really actually liked mock-tests – they weren't a very big part of the grade, unless you failed them miserably, and they helped you prepare even further for the real ones. Ouran hadn't done mock-tests until this year, due to some rich bastard or another complaining about their grades, but it was helping her tremendously. Keeping her grades up was the most important thing right now. If she was going to become a lawyer, as well as keep her scholarship at Ouran, she had to stay at the top of her class. Mock-tests helped that a lot.

Smiling faintly, she accepted the packet being passed back and handed the bundle along, setting her mechanical pencil to paper.

_Begin._

–

"Nee-chaaan, we're going to miss our washing machine!"

"We're not going to miss anything, just hold on two more minutes." Tsubaki said, distracted. "Are the clothes ready to be taken downstairs?"

Yumi gave her a look that said "Duh" and left the room as Tsubaki logged into her email account, closing down the paper she had been working on for the last forty-five minutes. Yumi had been asleep for the past hour (it was, after all, only eight AM) so she had had a chance to actually sit down and eat breakfast for a change as well as catch up on some of the homework due within the next day or so. It was strangely freeing, to not have to go to school; the fact that it was a review class for the end of term exams made her feel less bad about skipping – she knew all of it, anyway. And then summer break would be on them, and she would be able to not only work a lot more, she'd be able to spend more time with Yumi.

The computer dinged. Tsubaki slid back into her chair, pulling up the email account she shared with Yumi (no one emailed Yumi); once she saw the email address, a smile grew wide on her face, and she tilted the chair back.

"Yumi! There's an email from Megumi!"

"Megumi-nee-chan?" Something crashed in the other room – probably the bucket of laundry Tsubaki had stationed by the door. A few seconds later, Yumi tumbled in. "What does it say, what does it say?"

Tsubaki cleared her throat.

_Dear Tsubaki (and Yumi-chan too):_

_It's warming up here in Morioka. It was about seventy degrees today the English way (meaning Fahrenheit) and for the first time I didn't have to wear a sweater. I get cold easily, so that's definitely saying something._

_Mom finally managed to get a real job working as a floor manager at a department store, which means we've finally been able to unpack all of our stuff. We've been living out of suitcases all this time, 'cause we never knew if we were going to get chucked out of our apartment or not (as cheap as it is, it's really quite nice, actually) because we could barely scrape together rent each month. It's good now, though. I still have my job at Sunset, but I don't have to work quite so hard. It's good._

_I've attached some pictures of Morioka and my school and stuff so you two can see. I managed to get one of the sakura blossoms in the local park; we went blossom viewing and came home drenched in petals. My clothes still smell like them._

_I've finished most of my exams; tomorrow is the last one. When are yours done? When is Yumi-chan going to start school? Are you excited? How's preschool? Do you have any friends? I bet you're still studying for your exams, Tsubaki. Please let me know. I love feeding off other people's misfortune where school is concerned._

_Speaking of your life, you haven't told me much about it lately. What are you doing? Have you seen Riki-chan and Yoko-senpai lately? I know you and Riki managed to get into the same high school; are you in the same class? And what happened to the guy you had a huge crush on, Tousaku, or something? You never gave me details. I miss all you guys. Eat a crepe for me._

_I've been bugging my mom for the last month to let me come back down to Tokyo for the summer holidays (after finishing my homework, of course; three days of hard work should deal with that.) I like it here in Morioka, but it just feels temporary. I want to come back to Tokyo. It's in my blood._

_Ask your parents if it would be all right for me to stay with you during the (potential) trip. And give my love to Riki-chan and Yoko-senpai._

Riki and Yoko-senpai. God, when had she last spoken to either of them? They were both in her high school, Yoko a year above her and Riki, but she hadn't exchanged anything more than greetings for the past…three and a half months. It all came down to three and a half months.

Tears filled her eyes, unbidden, as Yumi puzzled through some of the words in the email, her face screwed up in concentration, and Tsubaki surreptitiously rubbed them away. No matter what, she absolutely could not cry. Not in front of Yumi, not in front of her friends (who she resolved to say hello and apologize to at the first possible opportunity), not even when she was completely alone. It had been getting harder and harder for her to go a day without her eyes blurring and stinging, usually brought on by something obnoxiously simple.

"We can ask Mom and Dad when they get back." Yumi said, her eyes burning with hope that was half disbelief. "If Megumi-nee-chan can come and stay."

"Yeah, we can." Her voice was completely normal, something she'd been striving for. "Come on, we're going to miss our washing machine.

The laundromat was quiet, considering that many of the people who usually used it – students, businessmen, and the like – weren't there to be making noise. The place had just opened, after all, and everyone else was supposed to be at school. Yumi immediately staked out the washing machine that they usually used, looking more excited than she had in a long time. She loved the laundromat, probably far more than she should have. Tsubaki didn't quite know what the appeal was, but it made doing the laundry every Sunday that much easier.

After she'd sorted out the first load and put it into the machine, Tsubaki dropped heavily down on the bench against the wall, opening her book. Yumi clambered up next to her, beaming happily and kicking her legs through the air as she watched the dryers tumble clothes on the opposite wall. They usually lulled her to sleep, but Yumi didn't care.

"So, Yumi-chan." Tsubaki said, after a few minutes. Yumi jumped and turned to look at her, her eyes wide and still swirling slightly from following the spiraling clothes. "What do you want to do after this? We could get some ice cream and wander around the park, if you want, or we could go to the zoo, or something else that I can't think of." _We won't have much food money, but what the hell, I did say this was her day._ "Completely your choice, okay?"

Yumi studied her for a few seconds. "Don't you have work?"

"No. I woke up extra early and finished everything that needed doing." Tsubaki smiled. "So what do you want to do?"

Yumi looked at her for a moment or two longer before smiling widely. Her legs started waving back and forth again. "Park."

_The wallet gods have blessed me today._ "Okay. Once we get the laundry home, right to the park and ice cream we go. Then what?"

Yumi frowned. "I don't know."

"You don't have to decide right now. Go and think about it. I'll just be here reading."

Yumi beamed at her again and slid off the bench, running across the laundromat to stare into the dryers as Tsubaki turned back to Cicero. But for once, she wasn't able to focus. She couldn't even start on the first Phillippic, which was why she had drawn the book from the library in the first place. She'd been escaping from what had happened the day before by focusing on work, but now that she had free time, it was drawing her back in again.

Host club. What kind of school club was that? Were they even sanctioned by the school? Wasn't what they did called sexual harassment? The place had been three kinds of insane! What kind of people would join a 'host club' in the most prestigious high school in Japan? They all had to be intelligent in order to get in there (well, either intelligent or very, very wealthy) so it wasn't like they were stupid.

_Hah. It was probably all some big joke. Play a joke on the patisserie assistant. I'm sure that's how the richies with too much time get their kicks._

She'd liked Fujioka-san, she really had. But she didn't like being tricked. Either it had all just been a big joke – possible – or there really had been a host club, and Fujioka-san really had been as shocked as he – or she – had looked. Both ways meant nothing good. She wasn't going to get involved with the host club; in the blonde's own words, it was the playground for the super-rich. A dirt-poor person getting involved would mean said dirt-poor person would end up a toy, and that was definitely something she didn't want to be, and having jokes played on her was too much right now.

At least her book had been returned in one piece. Considering the people that Fujioka-san was spending time with, that seemed a little in doubt.

No, wait, that was mean. She didn't know those people, so she had no right to make judgments about them. And whoever Fujioka-san was friends with was her – his – her business.

Why was Fujioka-san dressing as a boy, anyway? Either _he_ was the one that Rin ought to be questioning about sexuality, or _she_ was a cross-dresser, and either way meant that Tsubaki was missing something.

The first thing she would have to do if and when she ever saw Fujioka-san again would be to apologize for running out like she had. And the second thing would be to ask what the hell was going on with that group of boys.

One thing was for certain, though. She was never going to enter Ouran Academy again.

Two hours later, her phone rang. Tsubaki licked the ice cream off her lips before dragging it out, remembering at the last instant that she was supposed to be sick.

"Hello?"

"God, you sound awful." It was a disgusted Rin. "How many frogs are living in your throat?"

"Two or five." Tsubaki coughed weakly and put her fingers to her lips to shush Yumi, who was giggling behind her hands. "Here, Yumi, take this."

And she shoved her ice cream cone into Yumi's hand.

"How long are you gonna be sick, anyway?" Rin sounded very sour. "It's been crazy today, you have no idea. Not only has lemon-bar lady come in twice to complain that she found rind in her lemon bars – again, even though I _searched _the batter with a fine tooth comb and found none, I might add – there was what must have been this convention of Americans and only one of them spoke half-basic Japanese so he kept saying, 'I want some orange balls' rather than chocolate coated orange slices, and they didn't even ask if I spoke English – which, by the way, I kind of do – so they were miming at me for like half an hour before I just asked them what they wanted in American and that drove them nuts."

"I'm so glad I missed that."

"Anyway, you're not getting out of anything tomorrow. This is probably just a twenty-four hour bug, right?"

"Well, yes, but –"

"A call came in today requesting that you deliver some cakes to the same place as last time, he said you knew where it was. Apparently they still like you even though you used judo on their leader."

"What? But –"

"Don't start, you abandoned me to the American convention, you get to take the order no matter who you threw."

"But, Rin –"

"They requested you specifically, so you can't back out of it." She still sounded sour, but it was a pleased sort of sour; she was taking what she saw as her revenge. "And I don't care if you're still hacking up a lung, you'll be dragging your sorry ass up to that enormous school and taking those cakes there and _getting paid_ or you'll be dealing with me."

"Rin!"

"Oh, right, and thank you _sooo_ much for calling me out to the counter yesterday, that guy with the little blonde was three kinds of hot." Rin sighed heavily. "Too bad he left so soon, I was getting through to him, I know I was."

Tsubaki, who had been holding a pencil, squeezed it so hard it snapped between her fingers. "Will you get your head out of the clouds and listen to me?!"

"Huh, suddenly you sound better." She sounded distinctly evil. "That was a miraculous recovery. Maybe I should inform Marie-san."

"Rin, you –"

"Watch your mouth around Yumi-chan. See you tomorrow."

"Hold on a –"

_Click_.

Yumi stared at her, a swirled chocolate and vanilla ice cream cone in one hand, a fudge bar in the other. She squeaked when the swirled cone dribbled down her hand.

"Nee-chan?"

"Rin…" Tsubaki's voice was a growl; she squeezed her cell phone tightly in one hand, not quite enough to make it break, but almost. Yumi squeaked again, scooting away, as Tsubaki bolted to her feet, whipping her head back to scream at the sky. "I'm definitely going to kill her!"

* * *

_-san: As I said in the previous chapter, -san does not mean particularly anything (in relation to Mr. or Ms., anyway, despite what English translations of it tells you) but shows the fact that you have either just met the person you are speaking to or have respect for them as an equal._

_-kun: a term used typically by girls to boys, though it can be used in relation to girls on some occasions (e.g. Shigure to Tohru in Fruits Basket.) Usually for boys from middle school to college age, from the same social level or down._

_-chan: a term used between close friends, and to lower status people (younger sisters, like Yumi-chan, are common) and to make things seem cuter or more childlike. _

_-nee-chan: a combination of -chan and ane, meaning "older sister." when -nee-chan is used, it means that the speaker is close to their older sister; if they're not, or they're particularly polite, they would use onee-san or onee-sama._

_Doraemon: a popular anime about a elementary school boy and his robotic cat._

_senpai: used to address senior members of an institutionalized organization, such as a school or a company._

_Second chapter is officially done! I have about...hm, maybe eight chapters written (and plan to do a bunch more, so _Wonderland _might end up way long) but I'm constantly working on this, as well as several other projects, so those are the reasons for any lengthy time gaps. _

_Hope you enjoyed it!_


	3. Chapter 3

_DISCLAIMER: I do not own any aspect of _Ouran High School Host Club. _The club and all of its accoutrements belongs to the honorable Hatori Bisco-sensei._

_Ahhh...I love this chapter._

_WARNING: There is a reason this story is rated T. There _is _swearing in this. I haven't looked over it for a while, so I'm not sure if there's anything else, but seriously. T for Teen._

* * *

**Chapter Three****  
**_Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.  
_~ The Doorknob

"Okay." Rin set the bag of cakes in her hands. "In here there's a piece of Black Forest cake, a Sachertorte, an apple tart, two Gypsy tarts, and two strawberry tarts, just like what the order requested. That comes up to two-thousand, one hundred fifty yen, plus another thousand for you biking all the way there, which, considering how good our treats are and how much time we devote to sending them, is cheap in my opinion –"

"I'm not asking your opinion." Tsubaki snapped, straddling the bike. "If you're done gloating, Eichi looks like he's going to faint if he has to serve that family any longer."

"Whooo, touchy." Rin gleamed at her. "Did something bad happen to you while you were out sick, Tsubaki?"

"I swear to God, the next time I catch you sneaking out –"

"I go down, you go down, sweetie." She reached down and patted Tsubaki's cheek. "Let's not forget that."

"Don't forget that you've snuck out far more often than I've pled sick." Tsubaki said, with sweet venom. "It's a matter of degree…_darling._ Let's not forget that."

With that, she slid the bag of cakes into the front basket and sped away, relishing the shocked expression on Rin's face and nearly whooping as she took the corner as fast as she could go. _Backfired on you, didn't it? I win this time, Rin!_

She knew that Rin wouldn't actually tell on her. As much as Rin liked to threaten people, she really was (very, very deep down) a somewhat decent person, and probably understood the promise Tsubaki had made to Yumi. However, Rin also liked to have people depending on her goodwill, and an escape as abrupt as Tsubaki's would probably throw her for a little while.

Like it or not, however, she was stuck with this delivery. Tsubaki coasted down the small hill behind Délice, taking the long way around. She'd left early enough that she would still make it to Ouran on time and still take as long as was physically possible to get there. _Avoidance tactics employed._

So they had specifically requested her this time. To explain what had happened two days ago in a way that actually made sense? Hopefully. In spite of herself, she was the slightest bit curious about it. A host club, in a high school. The Ouran High School Host Club. The more she thought about it, the less it made actual sense. If it was an actual host club, what was Fujioka-san – a girl (probably) – doing as a member? What had the cakes and costumes been for? Had she accidentally walked into the school play, instead? (The presence of a fourth wall, however, made this unlikely.) Did people actually go to the host club? How long had it been going on? Who were those people, anyway? And was Fujioka-san actually a student at Ouran? Was she/he actually incredibly rich, or a scholarship student? Was being a host a legitimate club? (Well, Fujioka-san had seemed to be a fairly calm and reasonable person, which indicated that it was.)

Which meant they actually had a host club, which brought up all the questions all over again.

_Dammit! Quit spazzing about this! Just go in, ask calmly for an explanation, get one, and get the hell out. What should I be scared of? It's just a delivery, I've seen the people I'm delivering to, it's not like they're going to eat me or something. There is absolutely no problem with this._

Tsubaki braked at the top of the next hill, scrubbing through her hair with both hands. _Agh, who am I kidding? There is a _huge_ problem with this! I'm going to deliver cake to a bunch of nutball super-rich cosplayers!_

Why had they been dressed up, anyway? Tsubaki scowled, pushing herself forward down the hill and relaxing a little. She couldn't actually deliver anything if she was this worked up. She had to be calm. Calm and polite. Calm and polite and completely unflappable.

_Fat chance._

"Tsubaki-chan!"

Tsubaki slammed down on the brakes so hard that her bike nearly flipped. Next to her, a long, sleek black limo had slid to a stop, obeying traffic laws that she had forgotten, and peeping out of the rolled down window…

"Mitsukuni-kun?" Tsubaki gaped like a fish for a moment before shaking her head quickly. "What are you doing here?"

"We're going to see friends." Mitsukuni-kun beamed at her. "Tsubaki-chan, where are you going? Did you escape from work?"

Tsubaki shook her head. "No, I'm making a delivery." _Why is Mitsukuni-kun in a limo?_ "You have friends who live up here?"

He shook his head. "No. School. I was going to visit after school is out." He put a finger to his lips. "It's a surprise, so don't tell anyone, okay?"

Tsubaki smiled a little. "Okay. It was nice to see you – you too, Morinozuka-san." She'd caught sight of him further back in the limo. "I have to go this way."

She pointed down a side street, the faster way to get to Ouran on a bike. She could cut through the neighborhood behind it and follow the wall until she reached the gates, hopefully after Mitsukuni-kun and Morinozuka-san had gone inside. As much as she had liked the little boy, she didn't think she could deal with his cheerful optimism until this was over with.

The snotty guard from the last time she'd come in here had been exchanged with a far more polite version who let her through almost instantly, only tactfully requesting that next time she come in through the side entrance on the eastern wall and that she leave her bike at the guard station. Tsubaki thanked them, relishing the idea of entering through a less grandiose gate, and wheeled her bike into the little room, grateful that most of the students would be ignoring her without it. It was probably because of her uniform – maids sort of melted into the wall at a high-class place like this. Unless they were needed, they officially did not exist.

_Okay._ She let out a deep breath, pausing in front of the double doors. Third music room. She could do this. Even if she couldn't, she had to do this. It meant getting paid.

Tsubaki took a deep breath, steeled herself, and opened the door.

–

Haruhi hurriedly tucked the note from Hani-senpai (via Hikaru) back into her pocket as the door opened, smiling faintly. Shou-san looked about ready to scream – her face was strained and pale, her eyes flickering around the room as though she was about to get attacked at any moment. Haruhi couldn't really blame her; the last time she'd been in here, she had been ambushed by Tamaki-senpai with no sort of warning and even less idea how to deal with it.

Precisely why she had formally requested that she talk to Shou-san on her own, first, before letting the rest of the host club come in. Not only would that make it easier for her to explain what was going on, it kept everyone calm – for a little while longer, at least. It had been a bit difficult to get the twins, especially, out of the room, but with a surprise visit from Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai, had them sufficiently distracted.

"Fujioka-san." Shou-san said, scuttling into the room and carefully closing the door behind her. "Your…friends aren't here today?"

"I asked them to wait outside." Haruhi shrugged. "I thought you would want an explanation and I can't do that with Tamaki-senpai hanging over my shoulder."

"Oh."

"Sit down." Haruhi offered, sinking onto a couch herself. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"Oh, no, that's not –" Shou-san cleared her throat. "No, thank you. I'm fine."

"All right." Haruhi let out a breath, setting her hands on her knees. "I can explain what happened the other day, if you want me to. Or you can ask questions. Either way is easy, though questions will probably take longer and you probably have other deliveries to get to."

Shou-san blinked a few times. "Well, actually, no, I don't. Marie-san said that once I'm done with this I can just go home. I called in sick yesterday, so…"

"That makes this a little easier." Haruhi sighed again. "This all started last year, after some kid stuck a wad of gum in my hair and forced me to cut it all off…"

–

Outside the third music room, the host club – minus Tono and Hikaru, who were pressed up against the window, trying and failing to eavesdrop – were waiting under the trees for Haruhi to call them back in. It was a pretty day, for all of the drama, anyway – the sky was very blue.

Kaoru sighed deeply from against the tree, watching his twin and Tono squirm in an attempt to crack open the window. It was a miracle that neither Haruhi nor the baker-girl had noticed them. It wouldn't be long, though, if they kept those noises up.

"Waaa, I can't hear anything." Tono wailed, after his fifth attempt to surreptitiously force the window. "Kyouya, help!"

"I see no point." Kyouya-senpai said coolly, his fingers never slowing over his laptop. "It's clear that Haruhi is simply telling the story of how she ended up joining the club in the first place. There's no point in eavesdropping on such mundane matters."

"But how are we supposed to know what she's saying about us?"

"The point is, I don't care."

"Waaaa, Kyouya!"

"Just as a matter of curiosity…" Kaoru lifted his head from the trunk of the tree, a dark suspicion hitting him in the stomach. "You didn't happen to set the tape recorder in the first aid kit before leaving, did you?"

Kyouya-senpai smiled thinly. "Now, as it so happens, I did."

"What merit is there in taping Haruhi's conversation?"

"To establish just how much this delivery girl knows about Haruhi." Kyouya-senpai pointed out, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kaoru sighed, dropping down against the tree again.

"Of course."

"Well, you could have said that in the first place." Hikaru said grumpily, dropping down onto the grass next to Kaoru. Tono, who hadn't heard, continued to scrape against the window, bearing a distinct resemblance to a whipped puppy. "Hani-senpai, Mori-senpai, what's she like? You're the ones that went incognito to talk to her, after all."

"Well…" Hani-senpai set his fork down, musing a little before stabbing another mouthful of cake. "She likes her job, and she's good at picking desserts. She really, really likes to read. And she's sad."

This was unexpected. "Sad?" Kaoru echoed, sitting up straighter. "Why is she sad?"

"We don't know." Hani-senpai said glumly, fiddling with his fork. "We thought maybe Kyou-chan would, because he likes looking people up and he's good with computers."

"Kyouya-senpai?" Hikaru said instantly, turning to the club vice-president. "Have you looked her up?"

"It'll take a moment." Kyouya-senpai said, a little snappishly.

"Haru-chan said she goes to the same school as Mei-chan." Hani-senpai offered. Kyouya-senpai assimilated that information, thought for a second, and began to type.

"Shou Tsubaki." Kyouya-senpai said, after hacking for a few minutes. "Aged fifteen, born July eighteenth. Parents are Watanabe Hiromi and Shou Keiji, professional photographers for the magazine Katan Wish. Currently both are on a business trip to Baghdad to collect photos of the situation there, and were expected to return a little over three months ago."

"Are they dead?" Hikaru asked finally. Kyouya-senpai shook his head.

"No, it appears not. Their bank accounts are being regularly used and replenished, their cell phone bills being paid. Photographs are arriving at Katan Wish regularly which are most definitely their work. They simply haven't come home."

There was a short, shocked silence.

"That means Tsubaki-chan has been all by herself." Hani-senpai said, after a moment. "That's why she didn't have any time."

"Haruhi was right, her parents were gone." Tono, who had slunk over midway through Kyouya-senpai's online expedition, was unnaturally serious. "They're not dead, though. Not like she thought. They've abandoned her."

"That's awful." Kaoru said quietly.

From inside the third music room, there was a barely audible scream of surprise, and Hikaru grinned suddenly. "Bet she just heard about Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai."

"She can still smile, though." Hani-senpai said, scraping at the icing on his plate. "She's not broken. Don't feel bad for someone who's not broken."

"It would be the wisest choice to pretend we know nothing of this." Kyouya-senpai said, after a moment of silent agreement. "I hope I don't need to list the reasons. We will inform Haruhi of this after the delivery girl leaves."

"Okay." Kaoru nodded. "Makes sense to me."

"Everyone!"

They all turned. Haruhi had opened the windows, and was waving at them. "You can all come in now! I've explained."

"Not a word." Kyouya-senpai said, in an icy voice. Then he closed his laptop and left the picnic bench, going the long way around rather than going right through the window, as Tono did.

"How exactly are we supposed to act like we don't know anything?" Hikaru asked, in a dark voice. Kaoru shrugged.

"I don't know. Be creative."

–

Tsubaki took a deep breath as Fujioka-san returned from the window, smiling faintly. "Don't worry, they won't attack you…probably. They're nice guys, fundamentally. If you just remember that they grew up far more flamboyantly than either of us could ever dream of, it makes dealing with them easier."

_That's not exactly reassuring._ "Okay, thank you."

"Haruhi!" The blonde from two days before – Suou Tamaki, according to both Fujioka-san's description and Tsubaki's dangerous memory – vaulted over the windowsill like it was a horse from a gym and put his arms around Fujioka-san from behind. "Why did you shut the window? It prevented us from hearing anything!"

_Suou Tamaki-senpai. His father runs the school. His mother lives in France. He's the club president and the most insane person I know. According to the rules of the club, he's the prince type. And just as a warning – he and the twins have no concept of personal boundaries._

"That's exactly why I shut the window." Fujioka-san said calmly, pinching the back of Suou-san's hand and dragging it away from her. Light color dusted her face. "Please refrain from touching me like that."

"Um…" Tsubaki shot up from the couch, bowing politely. "I'm sorry again for what happened the day before yesterday. You just startled me, Suou-san." _I don't care how wealthy your family is and how high you're above me socially, there's no way I'm calling you Suou-sama._ "I brought the cakes if you would like to look over the bill."

"Oh. Right." Suou-san looked a little startled, but recovered in record time and picked up the bag, searching for the actual bill. "Of course."

"Haaaa, that's boring." The twins vaulted through the window as well, the darker-haired one scowling. Tsubaki backed up a few paces, already unnerved. "Tono, grab her hand again, see what happens."

"Hikaru!" Fujioka-san said, less calmly than before. "Honestly!"

_Hitachiin Hikaru and Hitachiin Kaoru. Twins (of course…) Hikaru is the one with darker hair. They supply the club's crazy costumes. Their mother, Hitachiin Yuzuha-san, is a fashion designer. Don't believe their twincest act, and don't let your guard down – they like to play with people. They're the little devil type._

The door opened behind her, clacking her in the spine, and Tsubaki hurriedly stepped out of the way as the tall, dark boy with glasses reappeared, a laptop under one arm and a singularly unidentifiable expression on his face. "Ah, Shou-san, excuse me."

_Ootori Kyouya-senpai. He's the Shadow King. Be careful with him: he's a puppeteer and he's very good at manipulating people. But he's actually quite nice, if you look hard enough. Don't let your guard down around him, either. He's the cool type._

_Easier said than done, Fujioka-san. Watch where you're opening that door, jerkface._ "No, it was my fault. I shouldn't have been standing in front of the door."

Ootori-san smiled faintly and turned to one of the round coffee tables, setting up his laptop. Tsubaki let out a long, silent sigh. _It's not as bad as I thought it would be… I guess._

Something slammed into her back, arms wrapping around her neck, legs around her waist. Tsubaki tried to scream and choked; all the air had been whacked out of her by the sudden attack, and she could barely breathe, let alone make a single sound.

"Tsubaki-chan!" Mitsukuni-kun – Hani-senpai – whatever his name was – caroled in her ear. "Sorry we tricked you, but Haru-chan was worried! Is it okay?"

_Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai. They're both in their first year of college, Hani-senpai in technology and Mori-senpai in jurisprudence, but they used to be part of the host club. They're probably the sanest, though Hani-senpai is really childish and Mori-senpai barely talks at all. You've already met them, yesterday, at D__é__lice. They're the loli-shota type and the wild type, respectively._

"It's fine." Tsubaki said, once she'd regained control over her vocal chords. Her lungs remained dangerously empty. "I was just surprised, that's all."

"Oh." Hani-senpai beamed at her over her own shoulder. "Okay!"

"Right, Shou-san –" Fujioka-san blinked. "Do you know a Yasumura Mei-san?"

"Yasumura?" Tsubaki blinked back. "She's a class behind me, why?"

"She's a friend of ours, too, so if you see her around here, that's why."

_Yasumura's involved in this too?_ Her brain was wobbling. Tsubaki put a hand to her head; there was too much information rattling around in her skull, and the restriction on her airway wasn't helping much. "E-Excuse me, Hani-senpai, I need to – sit down…"

The weight on her back abruptly disappeared, and Tsubaki sank down onto the couch, putting her face in her hands. If she learned anything more, she was going to overload.

"Shou-san, are you okay?" Fujioka-san asked worriedly. Tsubaki lifted her head, smiling. Sure, it was strained, but at least it was a smile.

"Yeah, it's just a little…much…"

"I know the feeling." Fujioka-san smiled. "Don't worry, it fades…mostly."

"Is it even okay for me to be in here? Technically, it is school hours…"

"Don't worry." Ootori-san said, without looking up from his laptop. "This club bends rules frequently enough that it's expected of us. No one will comment."

"Isn't it your…hosting hour, though?" Tsubaki stumbled over the word. "I should probably go."

"We canceled for today." Suou-san looked up from the bill he had been puzzling over, sending her a dazzling smile. Tsubaki swallowed hard and looked away, damning the good looks of every boy in the room. "We wanted to have Haruhi explain everything."

_How am I supposed to survive this place when I keep having heart palpitations?_

"I kind of have to get back to Délice…probably." Tsubaki said, standing hurriedly and beating at her skirt. "Thank you. For explaining, I mean. Really. It helped. And I'm sorry for two days ago."

"Really, you don't have to keep apologizing." Fujioka-san held up both hands. "I understand. It's okay."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Okay." Tsubaki smiled. "Okay! See you soon!"

"Here, the payment." Suou-san caught her wrist and set a few yen bills onto her palm, closing her fingers over them. "It was nice meeting you, Shou-hime."

Tsubaki felt herself flush scarlet and hurriedly pulled her hand away, bowing her head to hide it. "T-Thank you." _Get the hell out of here! Right now, Tsubaki!_

"Oh, and Shou-san –" Fujioka-san added, catching her elbow before she could escape. "If anything's troubling you, feel free to tell us. That's what friends are for, after all. Right?"

Tsubaki could only nod, Riki and Megumi and Yoko-senpai in her mind's eye. Without another word, she bolted out the door, wondering how exactly Fujioka-san – a fairly normal girl, all thing said – could deal with those boys hanging around her without having an absolute heart attack.

–

"…oh, and this is my cell phone number again, just in case you lost it." Haruhi's voice echoed through the third music room, playing back from the tape recorder concealed in the first aid kit hidden under one of the coffee tables. "I had to input yours into my phone to make sure it would accept calls, I hope you don't mind."

"No, of course not."

"_You taped the conversation_?"

There was no doubt about it. Haruhi was irritated with them.

They had waited until she had left the room – to go home, they had thought, and so she had claimed – to start the tape, listening in absolute silence. Tono flinched a little as to how she described him, and made little squeaking noises, but other than that, no one had said a word.

Precisely how Haruhi had snuck back in and waited against the wall, her temper boiling higher and higher by the second, without anyone noticing, was something none of them could guess. And now, they were dealing with the raging temper of a pissed-off _tanuki_ look-alike.

_She's very cute when she gets angry._ Hikaru rubbed the back of his head. _I don't want to get hit again, though._

"Why did you tape the conversation?" Haruhi spat at Kyouya-senpai. He was, after all, the most likely culprit. "What, exactly, was the point?"

Kyouya-senpai cocked an eyebrow at her. "Future references in discovering more of her past, of course. What else?"

_He lied. Right to her face._ It was difficult not to be impressed. Haruhi was clearly too angry to pick up on it, but it had been a skillful save nonetheless. _The Shadow King rises again._

Haruhi scowled at him for a moment before whirling on the others, and Tono flinched violently. "Who else knew about this?"

Hikaru shrugged, spreading his hands wide. "It wasn't our idea, Haruhi, so calm down. It was Kyouya-senpai's."

"But you knew about it, didn't you?"

"Not until we were outside." Kaoru interjected, before Haruhi could say anything. "We honestly didn't know, Haruhi, don't lose your temper."

"I'm not losing my temper."

She certainly sounded like it. Her teeth were gritted, her eyes were flashing, her voice was the closest it could ever get to a growl. Hani-senpai scrambled up to sit on Mori-senpai's shoulder, looking unnerved.

"And what, might I ask, was the _actual _reason for this?" She said, turning on Kyouya-senpai again. Hikaru sighed. _Damn. She picked up on it._

"I suppose there might be an alternative to finding out how much she would actually know about your situation when she left this room." Kyouya-senpai said coolly. "As well as actually allowing us to make assessments of her personality and abilities."

Haruhi's scowl grew even wider when she opened her mouth to argue that point and just as abruptly closed it again. Apparently, there was no way she could contradict that particular line of reasoning.

She recovered quickly, though. "And the moral rules of it?"

"Irrelevant in the current circumstance." Kyouya-senpai turned back to his computer. "And thus not something to concern yourself about."

"I –" Haruhi began again. Hani-senpai cut in.

"Sorry, Haru-chan, Kyou-chan was just worried about you." He said, more cheerfully than Hikaru would have thought possible with the potential of revenge from the Shadow King. "Don't be mad."

"Yes, don't be mad." Tono had snuck up on her again, draping an arm around her neck and pulling her in close against his chest. Hikaru gritted his teeth. "We were merely concerned, my darling Haruhi, concerned for your welfare and – _yow_!"

Haruhi had peeled him away from her again, her short nails digging into the back of his hand and leaving dark red marks. "I've told you several times, senpai, please refrain from touching me like that."

"Ha-Haruhi…"

"A piece of information you might be interested to know." Kyouya-senpai said, after giving Tono a moment to whimper in peace. "Today is July eleventh."

"So?" Haruhi blinked at him, her temper already under control again. Hikaru couldn't resist – he draped his own arm around Haruhi's shoulders, rolling his eyes and directing a triumphant smirk at Tono. Tono glared at him, wounded.

"So next Saturday is July eighteenth." Kaoru replied, putting his own arm around Haruhi as well. "After school ends, to boot."

"So?" Haruhi turned to look at him, completely at ease with he and Kaoru draping themselves all over her. Tono whimpered again, slumping against the couch and casting black looks at Hikaru and his twin.

"So, according to the days of the year, that's the day that your little baker friend gets her sweet sixteen." Hikaru rejoined.

"And that school, according to Mei-chan, finishes off on the seventeenth." Kaoru pointed out.

"And how exactly do you know this if the recording was for Kyouya-senpai to find out these things?" Haruhi asked shrewdly, staring at Kaoru.

"We might just have asked around that bakery of hers and called Mei-chan while you were outside." Hikaru said quickly, before Kaoru's eyes could widen and give the game away. "She wasn't there yesterday, after all, by her own admission. And that other clerk is easily charmed, I must say…"

"How long have you been planning this?" Haruhi sounded exasperated. Kaoru slid away from her and shrugged, looking relieved.

"Oh, ages."

"You two…"

"Haru-chan, Haru-chan, should we do something for Tsubaki-chan's birthday?" Hani-senpai caroled, sliding down off Mori-senpai now that the danger was over and catching Haruhi's wrist, spinning her around. "We can get cake!"

"That's really not necessary, don't you think?" Haruhi asked, disentangling herself and heading for the coffee table. "There, my cell phone. You all just met her the day before yesterday, I think it would be a bit abrupt for her."

"So?"

"Honestly!" Haruhi frowned at the both of them. "Don't either of you care how that will make her feel, getting a birthday from people she barely knows?"

"She doesn't seem to have any other friends." Kaoru pointed out. Haruhi sighed.

"That doesn't mean she wants to celebrate her birthday with people she doesn't know."

"Excellent idea, Hikaru, Kaoru!" Tono bolted to his feet, clenching his fist in triumph. "We shall give Shou-hime a birthday that she will never forget!"

"Understood!" Hikaru saluted, his brother beside him. Tono pointed.

"Kyouya, make the arrangements!"

Kyouya-senpai said nothing. He simply pulled up a new screen on his laptop.

"Hikaru, Kaoru, the theme!"

"Understood!" Hikaru snapped another salute as Tono whirled again, pointing to Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai.

"You two, the location!"

"Okay!"

"And Haruhi, it's your job to lure our target to the appointed place at the appointed hour of the appointed party!"

"That is a lot of appointeds, first of all, and second of all, what makes you think I would ever agree to this?" She was scowling again. "Would you all just stop and think, just for once –"

"Goooooooo!"

–

It was a slow Sunday.

Tsubaki sighed, tapping the counter with the end of her pen. No one had come in all morning. Just like the week before, and probably the week before that – her work memory didn't really last back more than two weeks. Of course, the last week or so had been so eventful she'd probably remember it for the rest of her life, but that was an exception of all exceptions.

_Damn those rich bastards. I won't be able to sleep for a while yet._

She hadn't been able to sleep at all last night, because of a single word in her memory: _friends_. So she was apparently friends with the nutballs, was she? Did that mean that they actually had her phone number? That they knew where she lived? Could they have, possibly, with their extraneous funds, hired a private investigator to find out everything about her?

_Wouldn't surprise me._

The idea that a private investigator was at that very moment searching her out didn't really bother her as much as she thought it would. She was too tired. She hadn't been able to shut her eyes for more than half an hour before snapping awake again. It hadn't been completely because the host club, though more often than not her mind had ended up drifting back to them during her attempts to go back to sleep.

Tsubaki sighed again, longing to pillow her head on her arms but not willing to be ridiculed if she was caught drooling on the counter. No point in giving Rin more fuel to harass her.

She didn't even particularly know why she had been up all night. Multiple reasons. Panic about the funding for the next week – that day off had cost them about a seventh of the annual food budget, which had been tight enough already, panic about the fact that Yumi had been bringing home more and more reports of bullying lately, panic about her parents (that was always on low level simmer, so she wasn't exactly unfamiliar with that particular emotion), just panic, panic, panic, panic.

It was easy enough to avoid panic during the daytime, but during the night…shadows seemed to have a bad affect on her emotions. At least she didn't have to worry about her exams anymore.

"Booooring…"

The pen increased tempo against the glass, going up to five-four time.

_The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity._

_Well…damn you, curiosity._

And to top it all off, today was her birthday, too.

The bell rang, and Tsubaki sat up lazily, stretching. "How can I –"

Her tongue seemed to swell in her mouth, choking off all speech, when she recognized the customer who had just walked through the door. It wasn't any of the host club, thank God, but, if possible, that made it that much worse.

Tousaku Makoto had just entered the shop.

The boy she had had a crush on since her second year of middle school had just entered Délice Patisserie.

And she'd been thinking about boredom a few seconds ago.

"Welcome to Délice." Tsubaki said, after her tongue returned to its natural shape. She could do this. She had just been taken by surprise, that was all. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Shou?" He blinked behind his glasses. "That – that _is_ you, isn't it?"

_Oh my God, why does he know my name? _"Um, yes." Tsubaki smiled shyly. _He's talking to me._ "I've worked here for a few months now."

"That's a coincidence." Tousaku-kun laughed. "I used to come here all the time, but there's been so much homework lately from my school I haven't been able to. Must have been around the same time."

"Must have." Tsubaki agreed. _Why on earth is he talking to me?_ "Anything I can get you?"

"Um…" He scanned the shelves. "I'll have to think about it." He hesitated. "What would you get?"

"What would I get?" Tsubaki blinked. A laugh burbled up out of her, and she shook her head. "You're the second person to ask me that in a week, you know."

"Really? Who was the first?"

The laughter went out of her, and Tsubaki glared at the Sachertortes. Tousaku-kun laughed this time. "That bad, huh?"

"Not really, just a surprise." She started laughing too, wonderingly. _I'm actually making semi-witty conversation. Who would have thought?_ "I'm good at picking desserts for people, and it ended well, at least."

"It's funny." Tousaku-kun said, still half-laughing. "I can actually talk to you. A lot of girls…" His face suddenly darkened. "Never mind. Do you think…"

"Hm?" Tsubaki sat back down again, feeling more at ease than she had thought she could be. _I'm talking to the boy I've had a crush on for…what, three years, and I'm actually managing? Eat your heart out, Rin._ "What?"

"You could pick for me?"

Her heart skipped a beat, and Tsubaki could feel the blood rushing into her face. She had had people ask her that before, but hearing it from Tousaku-kun could give her pleasant shivers. _Damn my hormones._

"U-Um…" Her face was beet red, she was sure. Tsubaki bent her head, using her long bangs to disguise it. Her voice couldn't really go higher than a whisper right now. "O-Okay…"

Tousaku-kun smiled again and stuck his hands in his pockets, waiting. Tsubaki snuck a glance at him out of the corner of her eye as she began to walk around the counters, measuring him – blonde, but not a light blonde like Suou-san, nor a dark blonde like Hani-senpai. Somewhere in between, and just as foreign as her own hair. Bright green eyes behind thin, silver-rimmed glasses. Only a few inches taller than she was, he was one of the shorter boys in her grade, but that didn't really seem to bug him. Not that she knew of. Not only that, but a member of the soccer team at his high school, which was one of the best in the district. Black shirt, clean black jeans. _Heart attack central._

"Don't you have work today, Tousaku-kun?" She asked; her voice had gone a little squeaky, so she cleared her throat. "I would have thought you had a part-time job, too."

"I do, but only during the week." He shrugged. "It's a book-shop not far from here. Not nearly as popular as this place."

"You mean Thutmose Books?" Tsubaki blinked. "I've been in there a few times."

Tousaku-kun laughed a little. "The owner was an Egyptologist for years, hence the name." He smiled faintly. "I like hearing about ancient Egypt. It's what I want to do, so..."

"What, archaeology?" This was new. "In Egypt?"

"Wouldn't it be amazing?" Tousaku-kun said. "To be digging up ancient worlds and studying how people lived five thousand years ago? How they worked, what their lives were? Maybe not even in Egypt, but in Mesopotamia or Peru or any other country with an ancient past. Don't you think?"

Tsubaki, recalling her fascination with Cicero, nodded. "Yeah. It would be really cool."

Tousaku-kun blinked at her again. "What?"

"I've always been interested in ancient history." Tsubaki smiled again. "We were in the same class for two years, I thought that you would have noticed that I always have ancient history books. I'm reading Cicero right now, but I read pretty much everything I can get my hands on." _Quit babbling, you idiot!_ "'All action is of the mind and the mirror of the mind is the face –'"

"'Its index the eyes.'" Tousaku-kun stared at her. Then his eyes narrowed slightly. "Be sure that it is not you that is mortal, but only your body."

"'For that man whom your outward form reveals is not yourself; the spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which and be pointed out by your finger.'" Tsubaki finished. She grinned. "What, were you testing me? If you were, here's one you might like." She cleared her throat and raised a finger, as though preaching. "'My command stands firm like the mountains, and the sun's disk shines and spreads rays over the titulary of my august person, and my falcon rises high above the kingly banner unto all eternity.'"

"Hatshepsut, isn't it?"

"Very good." Tsubaki lowered her finger. "It seems that your claim to Egyptology actually has backup. I'm happy for you."

"You're making fun of me, aren't you."

"No!" She shook her head quickly before catching the glitter in his eyes, and then flushed beet red. "You're the one making fun of me."

"Caught." He laughed. "I honestly didn't think you would be this easy to talk to." He reached up, prodding her in the forehead with his finger, and Tsubaki blushed harder. "Or to tease."

"You've been thinking about talking to me?"

"Depends on how you interpret it."

Then her eyes fell on the perfect thing. Smiling faintly, she drew it out and set it on the counter.

"This is a baklava." She said, before Tousaku-kun could say anything. "People think it was developed during the Ottoman Empire and further refined by the cooks at the emperor's palace. It spread all over the Mediterranean with the Crusaders and eventually came across the word because it was so popular. So it's kind of an ancient dessert. It's layered, and usually has honey and nuts inside."

"Sounds good." Tousaku-kun smiled at her again, and her heart went all flippy-floppy again. "I'll take that, I think."

Tsubaki beamed at him and began wrapping it up, crossing to the cash register. "That'll be…five thousand yen."

He paid, and took the paper bag from her, but didn't immediately leave. Tsubaki blinked at him.

"Is something wrong?"

"No." Tousaku-kun cleared his throat; for some reason, he looked a little pink. "Actually, I was kind of…wondering…"

"Yes?" The answer might have come a little too fast, but he didn't seem to notice. Tsubaki's heart was pounding in her throat. _Maybe…?_

"I-If you would…"

The door into the kitchen slammed open, and Tsubaki shrieked in surprise. Two exactly like people stood silhouetted in the dark doorway, and her heart dropped into her stomach. _No, it can't be. _"H-Hitachiin-sa –"

Before she could even finish the word, the twins had captured her arms, lifting her physically up off the ground.

"Target –" The dark-haired one said.

"– acquired." The light-haired one finished.

"Let me go!" Tsubaki shrieked, but by the time the words made it out of her mouth they had already carried her out of the back of the shop and into a limo, leaving behind Tousaku-kun and her dreams crumbling into dust.

–

As the unknown twins dragged Shou out by her elbows, shrieking, into the back room, Tousaku Makoto lost all motor functions.

It wasn't that he wouldn't have leapt up and defended his lady – if he could think of her like that – if he had had any sort of warning about what had been about to happen. She had seemed equally surprised at the sight of the two, let alone from the door back into the kitchen, and whatever had happened had happened so quickly neither of them had had any say in the matter.

Makoto put a hand against the counter, sagging. He'd been so close to asking Shou out, and then…the twins had happened.

Who had those twins been, anyway? He hadn't recognized them from his school, and it was doubtful that they went to Shou's all-girl school. Unless, of course, they were particularly skillful cross-dressers.

But then, how would Shou know them? Unless…

_No_. He wouldn't even allow that possibility to even cross his mind. Shou was most certainly not a cross-dresser, which meant that the two boys who had kidnapped her hadn't been either.

She had seemed terrified, though. Terrified, terrifically frustrated, and completely confused. Who had those boys been to have given her such a reaction?

Makoto picked up his receipt and left Délice, still deep in thought, unaware that Shou Tsubaki, the girl he had liked for the past three years, had just been dragged off to a birthday party she would absolutely never forget.

–

_Haruhi, message from Hani-senpai. It's word for word, so don't ridicule me. ~ Hikaru._

_Hika-chan, Hika-chan! Can you give this to Haru-chan, please? Her phone is off again and I've been trying for hours._

_Takashi, I'm working on it!  
_

_Hika-chan, please tell Haru-chan that Tsubaki-chan has a little sister called Yumi-chan who depends on her for everything. I just wanted to tell you in case I forgot about it tomorrow! *laugh*_

_D__é__lice is really good, Hika-chan, you and Kao-chan should go and try it. 'Kay? I'll give you the directions, give them to Haru-chan too. If you go down the main street in front of the school…_

Haruhi sighed at the piece of paper, feeling a world of sympathy for Shou-san. Hikaru and Kaoru must have 'captured' her by now – Tamaki-senpai had delegated the job to them when Haruhi had flatly refused to have anything to do with it. And Hani-senpai had been the one to give them directions. One would have thought that Hikaru and Kaoru would have noticed the street signs around Délice, but then again, they were filthy rich and had chauffeurs to drive them around.

_I'm sorry, Shou-san._ She sighed again and pushed back the curtain to her room, staring out at the private beach that the host club had commandeered for the next week. _I am so sorry._

* * *

_-san: As I said in the previous chapter, -san does not mean particularly anything (in relation to Mr. or Ms., anyway, despite what English translations of it tells you) but shows the fact that you have either just met the person you are speaking to or have respect for them as an equal. _

_If you don't use any sort of appelation (-san, -kun, -chan, etc) that indicates that you're quite close OR that you have no caring for social stuff. Really._

_-kun: a term used typically by girls to boys, though it can be used in relation to girls on some occasions (e.g. Shigure to Tohru in Fruits Basket.) Usually for boys from middle school to college age, from the same social level or down._

_-chan: a term used between close friends, and to lower status people (younger sisters, like Yumi-chan, are common) and to make things seem cuter or more childlike. _

_-hime: literally means 'princess.' Typical Tamaki stuff._

_Tono: the twins' nickname for Tamaki, it means 'lord.' Sort of like a feudal lord, like they compare him to in the episode "The Door the Twins Opened."_

_-senpai: used to address senior members of an institutionalized organization, such as a school or a company._

_Hope you enjoyed!_


	4. Chapter 4

___DISCLAIMER: I do not own any aspect of _Ouran High School Host Club. _The club and all of its accoutrements belongs to the honorable Hatori Bisco-sensei._

_Much thanks to _Woopa_, _JL724_,_ KageNoNeko_, and _chockolaaate_ for their wonderful reviews! It always makes me smile to see people who read my story! Thanks, guys -- peppermint fudge shipped express to you!_

_Fanfiction is being a bit of a pig and not keeping things centered that are supposed to be, so sorry for any visual inconsistencies._

* * *

**Chapter Four**  
"_But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.  
_"_Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."  
_"_How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.  
_"_You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."  
_~ Alice and The Cat

"Take the blindfold off." Tsubaki said waspishly, unable to yank her wrists out of the grip of one of the twins. They had pounced on her the instant the limo had pulled out of the parking lot, not only putting a blindfold over her eyes, but tying her wrists together so she couldn't take it off. She had been debating about using judo on them since she had been bundled out of the limo onto what felt like a long driveway, and up a set of stairs, into what sounded like a private plane. Then, after an undefinable amount of time, down the stairs again, and back into a limo. Wherever they were taking her, she would somehow just have to get back on her own. She most certainly wasn't ever intending of getting in debt to any of the super-rich cosplayer weirdoes.

"Not yet, Shoumi." Hikaru – she thought it was Hikaru – said carelessly, and Tsubaki blew air sharply out through her nose. She'd long since desisted in trying to worm the cloth off her wrists.

She'd almost managed to distinguish the voices now, even though they were so similar. It was no joke that people without the luxury of eyesight had sharper hearing. The lower voice – she thought – was Hikaru. It was difficult to make out, exactly, considering that she had only heard them speak in coherent sentences once before now and she was blindfolded, not to mention the fact that they almost never used each other's names.

"Where are you taking me? And don't call me commoner!"

"Ah, ah, ah." Someone – she thought it was Kaoru, though, again, she wasn't sure – rested a fingertip against the tip of her nose, pushing it lightly. "That's a surprise."

"You know this is illegal, right?"

"I doubt it." Hikaru again. "You are a friend, after all. Kidnapping is allowed with friends."

_What world did you grow up in, you psycho? _"People are prosecuted for kidnapping their own children, and I've only met you twice."

"Whatever."

"Why did you even bring me here?" Tsubaki sighed. "How long have we been traveling?"

"Only about two hours. Don't worry, it's not like it matters. Your school semester ended on Friday, it's not like you'll be missing classes."

Tsubaki stiffened. They really _had _hired a private investigator. Or maybe they had just asked Yasumura-san.

She hadn't actually sought out contact with the ganguro girl. She had never spoken to her before now, so not only would it be awkward, but to be frank, the girl kind of scared her a little. And she hadn't had much time, between work and taking care of Yumi; she hadn't even been able to start talking to Riki and Yoko-senpai again.

She'd have to deal with that as soon as she escaped the host club. If she ever escaped the host club.

"Seriously, what is all this for?" Tsubaki wriggled a little, and the twin's hand tightened around her wrists in a warning. "I need to earn the money for this week. I've been taking too much time off lately. And –"

"We cleared it with Marie-san." Kaoru said in her ear. Tsubaki stiffened, all of the hair prickling up her spine. _Damn them! They know exactly what an affect their stupid club has on me and they're using it!_ "She's fine with you missing work."

"Well, I'm not. And back away please." Tsubaki said sourly, twisting her head away. Hikaru laughed.

"Aw, look, she's embarrassed!"

"Red as a tomato." Kaoru agreed.

"Please stop." She sounded more exasperated than embarrassed, which was a good thing. Tsubaki closed her eyes, though the fact that she was currently stuck behind a blindfold made the point a bit moot. "I don't like it when people invade my space."

"Hey, can you teach us how to throw people like you did with Tono?" Hikaru asked eagerly.

"No I won't."

"Why?"

"Because, to be frank, I don't trust either of you and I don't want to give you a weapon." Tsubaki said, turning her face towards the window…she thought. At least she had an answer to this one. "And two, it doesn't seem like you'd need it. You have bodyguards, after all."

"Actually, we don't." Kaoru said carelessly. "First of all, there would be no reason to kidnap the sons of a fashion designer."

"And second of all, we have Hani-senpai on our side." Hikaru finished. Tsubaki blinked.

"Mitsukuni-kun?"

"He's the heir of the Haninozukas, haven't you heard of them?"

_I thought the name was just a coincidence! Fujioka-san could have mentioned this!_ "No – well, yes, but I didn't…" She whistled softly. "Wow…"

"Ah, we're here."

The limo rolled to a stop, and Tsubaki turned towards where Hikaru's voice had come from. "Does that mean that the blindfold comes off now?"

"No, it doesn't, just be patient." The door opened, and one of them pushed her in the shoulder blades while the other caught her wrists, pulling her forward. _That's rich, coming from you, Hitachiin._ "You're remarkably calm about this all of a sudden."

_I'm never going to admit it to you, but I'm actually curious as to where we are._ "There's no point in my getting worked up about it anymore, is there? It's not like it'll persuade you to take off the blindfold and handcuffs."

"It's cloth, not a pair of handcuffs."

"Exactly my point, still not something I can get off by myself. And I can't throw you because I don't really want to damage your skulls and I would have no idea if I was throwing you off a cliff or something."

"And you're deeply, madly in love with one or the both of us?" Kaoru asked. Tsubaki rolled her eyes, remember they couldn't see the action, and snorted.

"Oh, right. I want you, I _need_ you, oh baby, oh baby." _Hah, bet you won't pick up on that one._

"_10 Things I Hate About You_, isn't it? Didn't think you would be the one to watch American cinema." Hikaru said casually. _Damn. Why am I stuck with possibly the most annoying twins on the face of the earth?_

"I watch a lot of things." Tsubaki said sourly. "And I like Shakespeare."

"You'll have a lot to talk about with Nekozawa-senpai, then."

"What, wait, who –"

The gravel under her feet changed to cement, and then to wood, and a pair of heavy doors closed behind her. If anything, now would be time she would expect them to unblindfold her, but she was wrong; she was ushered up a long set of stairs, to the right, then, after about twenty seconds of walking, to the left.

"We leave her in your hands. And don't take off the blindfold."

"We understand." The voices were eerily unified. Two girls. "So, Tsubaki-sama. Come this way."

"Wait, what –"

"It's all right, Tsubaki-sama. We're here to pick you the perfect outfit."

"I just want to go back – hey, don't!"

Someone had been plucking at the buttons on her shirt. Tsubaki bolted back, getting out of the way.

"You cannot be seen in that outfit!" One of the girls said. She sounded distinctly evil. "It would be best for you to not fight us, Tsubaki-sama."

"I can undress myself! Just untie my wrists!"

"No, not allowed." The other maid said. And then, they pounced.

Tsubaki's scream echoed through the entirety of the mansion, and in the main dining hall, Hikaru and Kaoru laughed simultaneously.

–

"There you are, Tsubaki-sama." One of the maids straightened her shirt for her. Tsubaki shuddered. She didn't even want to know how they had managed to get her tied together wrists through the armholes. But they had, and now she was stuck with…whatever they had put her in. It had a skirt to it. She _hated_ skirts.

"You look so wonderful!" The other maid said happily. "The boys will be much pleased with you, my lady!"

_I want to go home…_ Tsubaki moaned inwardly, unable to say anything. Her vocal chords seemed to have given out through shock. _Please, someone, take me home…_

"This way, Tsubaki-sama." A door opened, and a gentle hand took her wrist; it was hard to believe that those same hands had coolly and efficiently stripped her not thirty minutes ago. "We'll take you to the dining hall now."

"Is this how you usually treat your guests?" Tsubaki croaked, wishing she could massage her throat. The maid giggled.

"Oh, no! Usually they can see. It was quite an adventure, dressing you, Tsubaki-sama. We had to be quite creative."

_That sounds horrifically perverted for some reason._ "What, exactly, am I wearing?"

"I'm sorry, we were instructed not to tell you." The other maid said cheerfully. "Don't worry, you will lose the blindfold soon. Oh, and take this."

One of them placed the handles of what felt like a heavy duffel bag into one of her hands, sounding like she was beaming at her. "This will serve you for the remainder of the trip, I think."

_What trip? I'm not on a trip. I've been kidnapped._ "Thank you." Tsubaki lied through gritted teeth. "I'm sure I'll enjoy them."

"Here you are, Tsubaki-sama." A door opened, and the maid pushed her forward a few steps. "Have fun!"

The door shut behind her. Tsubaki immediately let go of the bag, worming her wrists. It hurt to twist them too much either way, but the maids had loosened her bonds, she was sure of it. Now if she could just get her nails into the knot –

The cloth unwove from around her wrists, and she scrambled to get the blindfold off. Sight, blessed sight, and then a way to get home –

The moment the blindfold was off her eyes, the light suddenly blinded her, and Tsubaki blinked a few times to clear her vision. Something brightly colorful burst in front of her face with a loud bang, and, all at once, what sounded like a dozen voices – with one especially reluctant one in the background – shouted at her, as loudly as they could.

"_HAPPY BIRTHDAY_!"

Tsubaki stared.

The dining room was long, with pink carpeting and styled white pillars around the banqueting table (it was too long to be a regular dining table.) Only about half of it was laid, but with food she hadn't seen since her parents had left – food that wasn't fast or easy to make, food that she actually liked: _sashimi_, especially the _tataki _she had only had once or twice when her parents had had a particularly good series of photographs; _katsudon_; so many different types of sushi with so many different colors that her eyes were prickling in pain; _udon _that looked homemade; brightly frosted cake; and so many other things that she couldn't take it all in. And, for some strange reason, what looked like chocolate _taiyaki_.

The host club stood there, looking at her. Fujioka-san a little nervously, but all the same. Suou-san had on a party hat, as did the twins, and all three of them were holding party poppers. Mitsukuni-kun (she'd already fallen out of the habit of calling him Hani-senpai, due to the week of not seeing any of them) was sitting near the cake, looking excited. Ootori-san and Morinozuka-san were the only ones who looked completely unconcerned; Ootori-san was working on his computer again.

Tsubaki stared. Her mind had frozen, and she couldn't catch up…this appeared to be (she wasn't sure if it was a joke yet) a birthday party, from people she barely knew and wasn't sure that she wanted to know better. She wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry or scream or all of the above.

"I knew you would take it this way." Fujioka-san sighed. "I did try to warn them. Do you want to sit down?"

"N-No." Tsubaki shook her head firmly, still wondering. "I…"

She shook her head again and started to walk around the room, looking at the food, the decorations. She traced the tablecloth with her fingertips, barely aware that they were all staring at her: the keyboard to Ootori-san's laptop hadn't made a sound since she had come in.

After a moment, she picked up one of the _taiyaki_ and studied it, to make sure it was real. Then she turned to stare at the host club again, unable to speak for a moment.

"You don't even know me," was the first thing that came out of her mouth. "Why would you do something like this for me?"

No one spoke for a moment. Then Mitsukuni-kun slid out of his chair to stand in front of her, his hands locked behind his back, smiling uncertainly.

"We didn't want Tsubaki-chan to be alone for her birthday, and we thought, because we're friends, we could throw a surprise party for you. You looked lonely. We wanted to cheer you up."

Tears filled her eyes. "Yumi…"

"With Marie-san." Ootori-san pushed up his glasses, smiling triumphantly. "Haruhi remembered and contacted her. She has a bed for a few nights, at least."

_They remembered._ The tears spilled over. _They remembered Yumi. They wanted to help me. They barely know me and they thought that…_

"Shou-san?" Fujioka-san said hesitantly, reaching out to touch her shoulder. Tsubaki jerked away. If she was touched right now, she didn't know what she would do. Her emotions were so mixed up right now that everything would overflow.

Her eyes met Fujioka-san's. Tsubaki could feel her face screwing up, and, unable to stand it any longer, she whirled and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

She barely knew where she was going, but she wanted to see how far she could go before she could stop.

–

Nekozawa Umehito was taking his regular nighttime walk around the private beach when he saw the girl standing in the waves.

She was hip deep in the splashing water, her hair soaked in strings around her face as the tide pulled her ever-so-slightly back and forth. It looked like she had leapt in without caring that her clothes would be soaked, or that even though it was summer, the blessed night could be very chilly around here. He couldn't see much of her other than that. It was, after all, dark out, and the moon was new, barely giving any light at all. In fact, at first he had mistaken her for a rock, until that rock had moved.

He thought he recognized her. He had welcomed the host club in his family's summer house, remembering a similar beach trip they had made last year, and had seen the limo drive up with the girl and those twins. She'd changed clothes, and her hair had been changed, and it was difficult to make out anything about her face – even with his night-vision – but it _looked_ like the same girl. Besides, not many people came here. It was, after all, a private beach.

He had two options. He could go back up to the house and inform the host club – who had been worryingly quiet for the past few hours – that there was a girl standing in the surf, staring out to sea like she wanted to kill herself, or he could see if she was indeed the girl they had brought along and try to keep her from committing suicide. Or swimming at night. Or whatever it was that she was doing.

The girl began to wade deeper into the water, and that made his decision instant.

"Whatever it is it's not worth killing yourself over!" He called hastily, lamenting the fact that he had never learnt to swim. "Don't drown yourself!"

"Huh?" The girl turned to look at him. "Drown myself? I'm not drowning myself."

Umehito felt remarkably stupid. Grateful for the fact that his hood hid his face, he looked away before answering. "It's dangerous to swim here at night, there are bad rip tides."

"Oh." She turned back out to stare at the horizon again. "Okay. Thank you for telling me. I'll ask around, find out where they are before I go swimming."

She didn't leave the water. Instead, she crouched down, so that the water came up around her neck, leaving only her head above the waves. He couldn't help wondering if she was cold.

"This is going to sound really, really stupid…" The girl pointed up to the beach-house. "But I kind of stormed off in a temper and forgot how to get back up there. Do you live around here or something? Can you help me?"

"Oh." Umehito hesitated. "Yes."

"Thank God, I thought I would have to stay here all night." The girl waded back up through the surf, her clothes and hair drenched, and proceeded to wring some of the saltwater from her skirt. "Thank you. You're a life-saver." She studied his cloak curiously, but made no other comment. "What's your name?"

"Nn." He hesitated. He never really spoke to people who lived in the light, except the host club, of course. They usually found him too strange to talk to. "Nekozawa. You're…"

"Ah, right." She bowed formally. "I'm Shou Tsubaki. It's nice to meet you, Nekozawa-san."

Whoever she was, it was clear that she had never heard the name Nekozawa before. Umehito relaxed the slightest bit, turning and walking back the way he had come. "The stairs are this way."

"There are stairs?" She sounded surprised. "I climbed down the cliff. That's why I couldn't get back up."

She had climbed down the cliff? What was she, a magician? "That's dangerous."

"I know, but I wasn't really thinking straight." She shrugged nonchalantly. "I like rock climbing. And I haven't had a very good day." Her voice soured. "I've been kidnapped, dragged up here, had my clothes changed by people I don't even know, and had a party thrown for me by people I barely know."

So that was it. Umehito barely concealed a sigh. "What kind of party?"

"Birthday." She shrugged. "I'm sixteen today."

"May the dark gods of the night bless your day of birth."

"Um…thanks. I think." She sounded a little less sour, but no less exasperated. "They startled me. I just met them last week and they threw this whole extravagant thing for me. It made me happy, but…" she sighed deeply. "Uncomfortable. It felt a little like they were trying to buy my friendship, and that made me uncomfortable."

She was silent for a second, thinking. Umehito thought about that for a second as well. The host club did have an enormous tendency to be flashy and most definitely vain, but that didn't mean that they were selfish. They had probably been trying to help and had gone about it the wrong way.

He explained this, and the girl shook her head. "I didn't think they were trying to play a joke on me, not really. It was just really fast and they startled me." Shou-san sighed. "I just don't understand them at all."

"I think I do." Umehito said without thinking. When she turned to look at him, he shook his head quickly. "A little. Not really. But they like helping people. Even if it doesn't always work out, they're kind. They try to help."

"You sound like you speak from experience." Shou-san sounded distinctly amused. "Did they throw a birthday party for you too, Nekozawa-san?"

"No. I have photophobia. They tried to help me get over it so I could spend more time with my little sister, who had nyctophobia."

"Had?"

"She managed to get over her fear. I never shall. The night has too many draws upon my dark soul."

"O…kay." She hesitated. "So they're just awkward socially, is that it? With poor people, I mean. They're probably trained in all that etiquette stuff and don't have a clue how to treat someone from my…social sphere, you could say."

"They have only minute experience in that quarter, yes."

"'The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.'" She quoted. "Right?"

"In a way. You could also say that a spell never succeeds on the first try."

"You could." She agreed. Then she brightened. "You have a little sister? I do too. She's obnoxiously precocious but I love her to tears. She's helping me a lot. We're going through some difficult times lately, and she's been such a trooper." She laughed. "Don't tell anyone, but we skipped class last week because neither of us could stand it anymore. We had ice cream."

Suddenly, she stopped, halfway up the stairs to the house, and for the first time Umehito noticed that she was shaking. She was completely soaked, and probably had been for hours, and now that the wind was picking up she was most likely freezing cold.

Umehito did not like giving up either of his cloaks. After the Kirimi and the cat incident, he had become all the more attached to it, as well as a second layer he wore for the cold, and rarely, if ever, removed either. But he was highly tolerant to the cold, thanks to his Russian blood. This girl probably had no tolerance. At all. After all, she did live in the light.

Without giving himself time to second-guess himself – it was, after all, a moonless night out, it wasn't the wretched sun was blazing down – he whipped off the top cloak and thrust it at her. After a moment, she took it and wrapped it around herself.

"Thank you." He could almost see her smiling. It was too dark to tell much about it, however. "I shouldn't really take this, though. Should I?"

He hesitated again. Then, carefully, he said: "I have more than one."

"Oh." She thought again. "How old is your sister? What's her name?"

"Kirimi. She's four."

"Aw, what's she like?"

"She adores the darkness." Umehito smiled proudly into the moonless night. "I'm teaching her about the occult. She loves it just as much as I do."

There was a very short silence. Then, Shou-san said, "You're interested in the occult?"

This conversation sustained them quite nicely all the way to the house, and Shou-san actually asked a few intelligent questions about it by the time they entered the main hall. The instant the door shut, the one to the dining room burst open, and three people tumbled out – Fujioka-san, Suou-kun, and Haninozuka-san, all of them in various stages of panic.

"Shou-san, you're soaking wet, what happened to you?" Fujioka-san said, peeling off Umehito's cloak. "Were you cliff diving?"

"No. Just sitting." Shou-san took the cloak back, hesitated, then folded it over her arm and handed it back to him. "Here. Thank you for letting me borrow it."

"Eh?" Suou-kun blinked a few times – his eyes were enormous. "N-Nekozawa-senpai, you –"

By that time, Umehito had already used his extensive knowledge of the buildings' secret passageways to escape the light that someone was surely about to switch on, as well as the host club. He'd done enough for one night, it seemed.

–

"Honestly, what were you doing?" Fujioka-san said exasperatedly from the other room as Tsubaki slid into the bathtub, hissing at the touch of hot water. "Sitting in the ocean for the past three hours? Tamaki-senpai was far past frantic."

"Sorry." Tsubaki wasn't really sorry, but it was good to say it. It made everyone else feel better. "I was just taken by surprise and needed to think."

"You were quite dramatic about it all." Fujioka-san sighed and paused at the door, politely looking away. "Can I come in?"

Tsubaki hesitated. Then she scraped more bubbles over herself, picked up the enormous towel, and draped it over the top of the bathtub before saying, "Sure."

With another deep sigh, Fujioka-san came in and sat down on a chair set up against the wall, setting Tsubaki's clothes on the sink. It was a Western bathroom, which made everything a little easier to get to, but Tsubaki was still a bit uncomfortable; she usually didn't bathe in front of other people.

"If you'd stayed out there any longer you could have had frostbite." Fujioka-san scolded. "It may not look like it, but this place gets really cold at night."

"I don't think I noticed until I actually came out of the water." Tsubaki sighed, tilting her head back. She'd washed all of the salt water out of it by immediately dunking her head, so even though it was still soaking wet, it wasn't soaking in salt. "Sorry."

"Nekozawa-senpai found you, thankfully. If you had stayed out any later Kyouya-senpai would have probably sent out the Black Onion Squad and that's not a comfortable thing to deal with in the least." Fujioka-san sighed. "I speak from experience."

"How can you stand them?" Tsubaki asked. She was too tired to be polite anymore. "They just seem…"

"Ostentatious?" Fujioka-san smiled. "Obnoxious? Completely insane?"

"I wouldn't really have gone that far." Tsubaki smiled back. "But…in essence, yes. What's up with them?"

"Well, they were all very lonely for a long time." Fujioka-san began to tick off the points on her fingers. "They might be trained extensively in social etiquette or whatever it is the rich call it, but the twins especially don't give a damn. Tamaki-senpai is just an idiot. Their world is one of extremes, and when I first showed up, they were even worse then they are now." She smiled, a different kind of smile; it was gentler, more loving. "But they're kind. They try really hard to help people, even if it's troublesome to them or to others. Despite their more…interesting traits, they really are good people."

Tsubaki sank down deeper into the tub, thinking about that for a second. "That's…very similar to something Nekozawa-san said. About his sister and the photophobia, I mean."

"He told you that story?" Fujioka-san blinked. "That was an…interesting choice of an example."

"So does he live here, or what?" Tsubaki picked up the smaller towel, setting it on top of her head to create a tent over her hair. "Nekozawa-san, I mean."

"His family owns this place." Fujioka-san said absently. "He used to go to school with us, but he graduated this year and now he's in college with Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai." She smiled. "It was actually kind of surprising to see him out, he usually doesn't come out when there are electric lights on. It is a new moon out tonight, though."

"He thought I was trying to commit suicide." Tsubaki laughed. "I was hip deep in water at the time and walking deeper, so I guess it wasn't that much of a jumping to conclusions, but I had just wanted to see where the rip tides were. I didn't know how to get back up to the house, either, so I probably would have ended up getting frostbite if I hadn't been rescued."

"Nekozawa-senpai is…a little strange, but he's nice. Tamaki-senpai is terrified of him. I'm not sure if he knows I'm a girl or not." Fujioka-san shrugged. "If he does he doesn't seem to care. He really cares for his little sister, too."

"I could tell."

"He hangs around in dark places, so if you go wandering, you might catch sight of him again. What did you talk about?"

"Not much." Tsubaki frowned. "The host club. I told him about Yumi. We had a discussion on the occult. I read a lot, so I know a bit about it. He seemed really excited."

"If you had been at Ouran last year he probably would have tried to recruit you to the Black Magic Club." Fujioka-san giggled. "He might seem a bit odd at times, which he kind of is, but he's nice. As you saw. And I think he's a little bit lonely." She sighed. "He dresses in a cloak and wig all the time and he has that puppet, so that puts people off. It's nice that you two might be friends. He needs friends."

_Puppet?_ Tsubaki decided not to ask, ducking her head one last time. If she stayed in the hot water any longer, she would probably end up losing all her skin. "I'm getting out."

"I'll wait outside, then."

As soon as the door clicked shut, Tsubaki stood up and wrapped the towel around herself, grateful for the fact that the steam in the room made it a little warmer. She had none of her clothes with her, which was a bit of a problem until she noticed that Fujioka-san had brought in her duffel bag.

_I'm kinda afraid to open it._

She had completely ruined the clothes the maids had forced her into, which she was a little sorry over. From what little she had seen of them, they had been quite pretty; a knee length, forest green skirt and a light green, button up shirt, which had been very comfortable even though she hated skirts. Hikaru and Kaoru had lamented over their ruin, but Tsubaki had escaped before they could turn on her. From her experience, the twins were the most dangerous of the host club.

So far, at least.

Bracing herself, Tsubaki set the duffel bag on the sink, unzipping it and staring inside. More clothes. How long, exactly, was she expected to stay here for?

"How long is my trip here?" Tsubaki called through the door, sorting through the clothes. There: what looked like a pair of pajama pants, down at the very bottom, with a matching T-shirt. And, blessing of blessings, underwear, though she most certainly did not want to know how they had managed to get her bra size.

Oh, wait. The maids could have checked while they had been dressing her. Tsubaki shuddered. _Way too much information._

"I think about a week." Fujioka-san sighed. "That's how long they conscripted me for, anyway. I hope you don't mind."

A week. Tsubaki pulled the pants out of the duffel, liking the stripy pattern of them. (Mint green and light pink. She hated pink, but she liked it here.) So she was stuck here for a week, was she? That might not be bad. It wasn't like she wasn't going to be fed here, and material considerations aside, she had a traitorous desire to explore this place. And she wanted to actually see if the stories she had heard about the host club had proof.

She pulled the pajama top – a simple white shirt – over her head before grabbing a bathrobe and wrapping it around herself, still cold. The problem was Yumi. She wasn't about to leave her sister in the care of Marie-san for a week, no matter how much she trusted both of them. It felt weird without having her sister nearby. Her sisterly instincts were kicking in.

She pulled her hair out of the collar of the shirt and studied herself in the mirror, trying to think as the water whirled down the drain. A week here. She could handle that. Probably. Maybe she could get Yumi up here, somehow. She was still irritated for the presumption of the host club, but the stories had given her a little reason to forgive them, at least partially. They had been trying to help. Whatever they had done, they had done it to help.

Most likely.

"I'm done." She called, opening the door to the bathroom and stepping out into the room. Tsubaki sighed deeply. "Fujioka-san, is it really –"

Her throat swelled up to the size of a melon, making it impossible for her to speak. Suou-san and Mitsukuni-kun were sitting on the twin bed, staring at her. Hikaru and Kaoru were at the door. Over their heads, she could see the dark hair of Morinozuka-san and Ootori-san, watching quietly. Fujioka-san looked exasperated. They had invaded even this room.

"Oh." That strangled noise was the only one she could make, over the immense desire of darting back into the steamy bathroom and slamming the door and never coming out. She raised a hand, shyly. "Hi."

Suou-san slid languidly off the bed, and before she knew it, her hand had been captured. Gently, all the same, but captured. Unlike last time, however, it wasn't invading her space, which made her pause in throwing him over her shoulder again.

"I'm sorry."

Tsubaki blinked at him. "What?"

"We didn't mean to displease you." He was looking at her so earnestly, like a puppy that had just been kicked and was seeking forgiveness. "We found out your birthday was today and we wanted to help. I apologize on behalf of the whole host club if we have offended you or made you uncomfortable in any way."

_They really are just stupid._ Tsubaki pushed away the smile creeping up over her face, unable to resist teasing them. She adopted a stern tone. "I am a little displeased, I suppose."

The look Suou-san gave her could have made Scrooge feel guilty. Tsubaki relented. "But not enough to be really angry. You just startled me, that's all. They're the ones who kidnapped me." With her free hand, she pointed at the twins.

"How else were we supposed to get you to come along?" Hikaru complained. "It wasn't like you were just going to drop everything and go when your boyfriend was in the room."

Tsubaki blushed hotly. "He is _not_ my boyfriend!" She soured. "Though you might just have ruined any chance that he'll ever ask me out, thank you very much."

"Whoa, see, she does have a bit of a temper." Kaoru looked pleased. "She was calling us every name in the book when we first caught her."

"Understandably, if I know you two at all." Fujioka-san said.

"Aw, if he likes you at all he'll get over it." Hikaru said carelessly. "Anyway, you ruined those clothes. I'll have you know that those were the only versions of those in existence. Our mother made them."

"Revenge is sweet." Tsubaki poked her tongue out at them before slipping her hand out of Suou-san's, crossing over to sit on the bed. "Consider it repayment for my blindfolding trauma."

"So…you're not angry?" Suou-san asked, slightly puzzled. Tsubaki shrugged.

"Maybe a bit. Not enough to want to leave." Tsubaki crossed her ankles. "This place is really pretty, first of all. And second of all, it really was nice of you to do this for me. Just…" She smiled. "A little more warning next time, okay?"

Mitsukuni-kun beamed at her, and promptly leapt onto her, latching on like a koala. It was only experience with Yumi doing exactly the same thing – though Yumi was definitely lighter – that kept her from toppling off the mattress. "Yay! You're really not mad!"

"Not particularly." That was all she could get out because of the stranglehold around her throat. "Breathing is necessary."

"Oh." The grip loosened a little. "Sorry."

It was now or never. Tsubaki took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for running out and worrying you all. I didn't mean to. It was just…I don't know. Fight or flight, I guess. Thank you for doing this for me. I…" She smiled. "Well, I _think _I appreciate it, anyway."

Backhanded compliment or not, it delighted Suou-san and Mitsukuni-kun. It took a few minutes to disentangle herself from them and ask for a phone.

She needed to call Yumi.

–

"Marie-san?" Tsubaki twisted the cord around her finger. She liked phones with cords. It gave her hands something to do. "It's Shou Tsubaki. Is Yumi okay?"

"I thought you'd be calling right about now." Marie-san sounded endlessly amused. "Did your friends find you? I think it's positively darling of them to throw you a surprise party, and they were so _handsome_! Tsubaki-chan, you really must bring them over again, I'm sure our other customers would enjoy it."

_They set foot in D__é__lice again over my dead body._ "I'll think about inviting them. How's Yumi?"

"She's wonderful. We had fun making cookies and things, and now she's just getting ready to go to bed. Don't worry about us, Tsubaki-chan, you have fun with your friends for the next few days. Lord knows you deserve a bit of a break, after working so hard all the time as well as getting sick. Do you want to speak to her?"

"Yes please." Tsubaki crossed her fingers. "I would, actually."

"Hold on a moment."

After a few seconds, the phone clattered. "Nee-chan?"

"Yumi, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She sounded fine. That was good. "Happy birthday, nee-chan. Are you having fun?"

"A bit, yeah." A white lie couldn't hurt. "Listen, Yumi, I'm sorry. I didn't know they were going to kidnap me today. Are you okay staying with Marie-san for a while?"

"Of course." She could _hear _Yumi smiling, something that hadn't happened in a long time. "I like Marie-san. She lets me eat cookie dough."

"Not too much of that or you'll get round like a pancake."

"Where are you?"

"I'm…not exactly sure. A private beach, I think. I'll bring you some seashells?"

"'Kay."

"You sound exhausted, sweetie. Go to bed and dream something happy for me. I'll see you soon, all right?"

"Mm-kay. Love you."

"Love you too. Put Marie-san back on."

"Darling, she's absolutely the sweetest little girl I've ever dealt with." Marie-san cooed, as soon as she had the phone back. "Stay as long as you like. Ryouji and I are delighted to put up with her."

"I really am sorry for dropping this on your head." Tsubaki said.

"Oh, don't be. We'll have oodles of fun. You spend time with your friends and come back in a day or two, I'll take your mail in and make sure everything's all right at your apartment. I think I'll take your sister shopping for a birthday present for you, she didn't seem to have one ready."

"Oh, no, that's not –"

"Nonsense. It'll be from all of us back in Tokyo." When Marie-san sounded like that, there was no going against her. "It's a perfect arrangement, and I won't be taking this out of your paycheck. Anything for a favorite employee."

"Oh." Tsubaki hadn't considered that, but it was a reassurance nonetheless. "Thank you." She hesitated. "Oh, and if a green-eyed blonde boy comes in and asks for me, tell him I wasn't kidnapped."

"You mean Tousaku Makoto-kun?" Marie-san's voice was layered with meaning. "Certainly, dear. I'll inform your boyfriend of the situation. He's quite a catch, dear, you should be proud of yourself."

Tsubaki flushed bright red. "He is not – !"

"Not yet, you mean. Toodles, darling."

"Bye."

"So?" Fujioka-san said, as soon as Tsubaki set the phone back into its cradle. She had poked her head through the door halfway through the conversation, waiting politely for her to finish before speaking. "How are they?"

"Surprisingly ebullient." Tsubaki sighed. "I think Marie-san has been watching too many romance movies again. But Yumi was good."

"That's good." Fujioka-san smiled. "Listen, do you want to come downstairs? No more party poppers, I promise."

"If I must." Tsubaki slid off the bed. "I still can't believe there's a phone in every bedroom."

"The extravagance of it isn't lost on me, either, but I suppose we'll just have to rich it." Fujioka-san said, falling into step with her. "Or they'll have to slum it. Either way we benefit."

"Exactly." Tsubaki smiled back. "You really care for them, don't you, Fujioka-san?"

"For some strange reason." Fujioka-san sighed. "You can call me Haruhi, you know. I won't be offended."

"And vice versa." Tsubaki sighed. "Don't call me Baki, though. It sounds stupid."

"Understood." Haruhi laughed. She didn't ask about Tousaku-kun. "We waited for you to eat. Most of the really ostentatious stuff has been cleared away, don't worry."

"No, it really was a pretty set-up. I'm sorry for ruining it."

"Don't worry. They weren't too heartbroken." They started down the stairs. "Hani-senpai might have made deep inroads into the cake, I hope you won't mind."

"No."

Polite conversation to carry them through the house helped Tsubaki relax a little. This would be easy enough to deal with.

"Oh, right. I need to tell you something before we go in." Haruhi paused at the door. "I'm sorry, first of all. I wouldn't have let them invade your privacy like this if I'd known they were doing it. They sort of…taped our conversation last week without my knowledge."

"Taped it?"

"Kyouya-senpai's idea. He can't stand not knowing everything." Haruhi sighed. "But the point is, they might start asking about your parents."

Her heart shriveled up into a stone and dropped through the floor. Tsubaki swallowed a few times, convulsively, unable to even breathe.

"I'm sorry." Haruhi said again. "They'd looked everything up and checked it with Katan Wish before I even knew they were doing it. I think that's partly why they dragged you here. They wanted to take some of the responsibility off of you."

"Y-You…" Tsubaki took a deep rasping breath. "Y-You know that –"

"Your parents are in Baghdad, and that they haven't contacted you in three months?" Haruhi said. "Yes. We know. I'm sorry, again. Like I said, I didn't know they were invading your privacy like that, and I would have stopped them –"

It felt like the world was rocking under her feet. She couldn't quite breathe right. "T-They –" _They're still in Baghdad. They're not dead. They're not dead. They're not. _"I'm…sorry, I – I have to go."

"Don't." Haruhi said. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have dropped it on you like that. If you disappear again Tamaki-senpai will panic, and then none of us will ever be allowed to sleep again. Take deep breaths or you'll start to hyperventilate."

Tsubaki obeyed. Even in the midst of her shock, she had no more anger in her. She couldn't be angry at them. She had no more energy to be.

"I was just warning you, because one of them will most likely ask over the course of the next few days. So you would be prepared." Haruhi took her shoulders. "Slow down. Deep breaths. Come on."

In. Out. In. Out. Tsubaki closed her eyes, tightened her hands into fists. _Calm down. No tears. Absolutely no tears. They know. What's the problem? Everyone should know that Yumi and I have been dumped as children. Everyone should know what my parents are really like. Everyone should know._

It felt like an enormous weight had suddenly been taken off her shoulders. They knew about her parents. She didn't have to worry about them finding out, didn't have to worry about them pitying her. They wanted to help her. They cared enough to want to help her.

They really were good people, just as Nekozawa-san and Haruhi had said.

After a moment, Tsubaki regained control of her breathing and opened her eyes. Haruhi removed her hands from her shoulders, smiling in relief. "I'm sorry for dropping it on you like that. I should have told you later."

"No, it's fine." Tsubaki said. A small smile appeared on her face. "It really is fine. I would have appreciated them asking me rather than going through my records, but it's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Then you're okay with going in?"

"Definitely." _I can do this._

Haruhi beamed at her, and pushed open the door.

_I can definitely do this._

_

* * *

_

-san: As I said in the previous chapter, -san does not mean particularly anything (in relation to Mr. or Ms., anyway, despite what English translations of it tells you) but shows the fact that you have either just met the person you are speaking to or have respect for them as an equal.

_If you don't use any sort of appelation (-san, -kun, -chan, etc) that indicates that you're quite close OR that you have no caring for social stuff. Really._

_-kun: a term used typically by girls to boys, though it can be used in relation to girls on some occasions (e.g. Shigure to Tohru in Fruits Basket.) Usually for boys from middle school to college age, from the same social level or down._

_-chan: a term used between close friends, and to lower status people (younger sisters, like Yumi-chan, are common) and to make things seem cuter or more childlike. _

_Tono: the twins' nickname for Tamaki, it means 'lord.' Sort of like a feudal lord, like they compare him to in the episode "The Door the Twins Opened."_

_-senpai: used to address senior members of an institutionalized organization, such as a school or a company._

_ganguro: Ganguro, or "black face girls" is an alternative fashion trend of blonde or orange hair and tanned skin among young Japanese women that peaked in popularity around the year 2000, but remains evident today. (Ah, how I love Wikipedia.) Mei is a ganguro girl._

_-nee-chan: a combination of -chan and ane, meaning "older sister." when -nee-chan is used, it means that the speaker is close to their older sister; if they're not, or they're particularly polite, they would use onee-san or onee-sama._

_-sama: attached typically to people of higher social status. Typically translated as 'lord' in English, though different from what the twins use (Tono.) Used typically by someone subordinate to the person being addressed as -sama. (Here, a maid -- thus, a servant -- to a guest.) -san is far more common._

_Bathing: In Japan, bathing is a communal activity. As anyone who reads manga or watches anime extensively knows, the Japanese are often perfectly comfortable with communal nakedness. Granted, Tsubaki and Haruhi have only been friends for a few weeks, so Haruhi's intrusion into the bathroom is a bit surprising, but given the fact that it's Haruhi (the oblivious girl of obliviousness) I thought it was okay. There is absolutely NO sexuality in this scene, and no sexuality meant. I do not write yuri (girl-girl) relationships often, and NEVER with Haruhi._

_Just to let you know._

_Nekozawa-senpai: also as a just-to-let-you-know thing, I've sort of combined manga Nekozawa and anime Nekozawa. So that means that Renge-chan had a big part in the photophobia incident, like she did in the anime; she had nothing to do with it in the manga. So if her name comes up in relation to photophobia, that's why._

_So, here we go! Chapter Four. I seriously have to start writing this story again -- I'm about five chapters ahead of what I've posted online, but I like staying five chapters ahead, so I don't get stuck. And I promised Host Club centric-ness -- here ya go!_

_As always, thankies for reading!_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five  
**_I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!__  
_~ Alice

Both Mitsukuni-kun and Tsubaki fell asleep part-way through the dinner. She couldn't really remember doing it; it had just happened. She had worn herself dry on panic and anger and all of those other emotions, and she'd closed her eyes for a moment while waiting for her soup to cool, and the next time she'd opened them, the sun had been shining brightly through the window, and she had been tucked into a twin bed.

Tsubaki couldn't remember where she was for a moment. She always slept so that the sun wouldn't rise in her face at her own house, not to mention she didn't own a mattress. And the alarm hadn't gone off to get her to work.

Then she saw the ceiling—with all its lacquering—and remembered. She'd been kidnapped by the host club yesterday. She was at a summer house. She was at the beach.

She sat up, kicking the covers off, listening to the silence of the house. Only seven o'clock. She hadn't slept that late. It was a luxury to sleep until seven o'clock in her world, but the rich people wouldn't think that late at all, probably. It really was a different world for them.

She showered quickly, searching through the duffel bag until she found a pair of pants—sure, they were nice pants, but at least they were pants and thus more comfortable for her—and folded the pajamas before leaving the bedroom she had been given. She ran into no one, all the way down to the dining room, which was a blessing. She didn't know if she could deal with the host club until she'd had at least one cup of coffee.

Yesterday had left her feeling very raw and pained. Her eyes felt sore from her crying; her feet felt sore from standing on the rocky part of the ocean bed; and her heart felt sore from the sudden slap of her parents. But it had washed her clean; she felt truly at peace for the first time in weeks.

Sure enough, no one was in the dining room, even though there was breakfast laid out on almost a buffet table. Tsubaki poured a cup of coffee, clasping her fingers around it and savoring the warmth of it. She still felt a little cold from her three hour dip in the ocean the night before.

"Ah, good morning, Tsubaki-sama. Breakfast isn't until eight, you know."

Tsubaki stiffened. She knew that voice. It was one of the maids. Both of the maids, by the view over her shoulder. Long dark hair, traditional French maid outfit. And, most dangerous, considering who had kidnapped her the day before—twins.

"Good morning," Tsubaki said warily, ready to drop everything and start running if she had to. Neither maid moved. They were staring at her, their eyes raking over her like they were studying a particularly expensive piece of furniture.

"Wonderful," twin one said crisply. On the right, twin two nodded.

"I completely agree. We chose well." Twin two frowned lightly. "The hair will have to be changed, however."

"Oh, most definitely."

"Um…excuse me." Tsubaki uneasily fingered her French braid. Sure, her hair was short, but it was a nice sort of short—just brushing the bottoms of her shoulder blades, long enough to put in ponytails and plaits but short enough to be cute. "It's my hair. I want it to stay the way it is."

"Oh, don't worry, we wouldn't do anything to its length or color yet. It's too early to play around with it." Twin one smiled. "No, we'll have to study it. We were merely observing _you_, Tsubaki-sama."

"Me?" Tsubaki stared at them. "There's nothing going on with me."

"Oh, you might not be beautiful, I grant you," Twin two said carelessly. _Really. Thanks. You're too kind._ "But you have a certain sort of quality about you nonetheless."

"Distinctly fawn-like."

"No, more like a hedgehog. Prickly but sweet."

"Can I have a part of the decision, please?" Tsubaki scowled at them over her coffee cup. "And I know I'm not pretty, thank you for rubbing my face in it."

"That wasn't the intention at all, Tsubaki-sama!" Twin one lunged forward and caught her hands. Her coffee went flying, and the mug shattered a window. "You might never be what some people call beautiful, but you have something –"

"An X factor, you could say—" Twin two agreed, as Tsubaki was spun wildly around.

"—That gives you a sweet look. You were absolutely adorable in your heinous commoner clothes, and now that you are in the clothes that _we_ selected—"

"You're not only adorable, you are _classy_." Twin two nodded. Tsubaki was getting sick. "The tan slacks make your skinny legs appear far more shapely, and the business shirt—modified, of course, to make it casual, with the elbow-length sleeves—is a perfect match to it."

"Not to mention," Twin one said, coming to a shuddering halt and gripping Tsubaki by her arms. Her eyeswere resting on a place that made Tsubaki even more uncomfortable, "that it makes your bust look the slightest bit bigger, an improvement, I must say—while your predicament isn't as bad as Fujioka-sama's, it's not exactly something that can be repaired through natural growth –"

"Okay, TMI." Tsubaki wrenched away and crossed her arms over her, admittedly small, chest. "I like my body the way it is, there will be no—no poking or prodding of—of those. And my legs aren't skinny." Then, in an attempt to get them off this subject, she asked, "When will everyone else be up?"

"Kyouya-sama will not be awake until noon," twin one said.

"Nekozawa-sama just retired to bed," twin two added.

"Fujioka-sama, Suou-sama and the bocchamas will be up within the hour."

"And Haninozuka-sama has just awoken and has joined Morinozuka-sama in the west wing."

_Nekozawa really is a night owl._ "How do I get to the west wing?"

"In the entrance hall, there's a door on the right hand side –"

"Judging from the front door, of course –"

"Take that and walk all the way down to the door at the end of the hall –"

"To the inner courtyard."

Their voices joined into one again. "Have fun, Tsubaki-sama."

_Yeah, I will, away from you._ Tsubaki forced a smile on her face. She did _not _look at the broken window. "Yes, thank you."

The maids bowed simultaneously and slipped out of the dining room, leaving Tsubaki to sag against the table. Was it wrong to be terrified of two girls (only a little older than she was, probably) who were simply fascinated with clothes and seemed to love putting them on her?

Yes. It was completely wrong. But she didn't feel guilty about it in the least.

The inner courtyard was covered with plants. None of them seemed to be blooming; of course, the sun hadn't quite made it over the house yet, so there might have been a reason for it. They most certainly had bulbs, anyway, and some of them seemed ready to open. Tsubaki shivered, wishing she'd put on a coat,—it really did get cold here in the mornings; her hair was still wet, after all—and started down the main path, not even really thinking about it. It was relaxing just to be able to wander without having to wonder whether she'd finished any number of things—homework, chores, dinners, her job, school…

Wow. Now that she listed it up, it didn't seem to be all that much, but it sucked up so much of her time that it seemed like a whole lot more. Five things, that took up so much of her world.

Oh, and Yumi, of course. That made six things.

She wasn't really trying to find Mitsukuni-kun and Morinozuka-san. If she ran into them, well, that was fine, but she was also just wandering around with her coffee mug, relishing the morning. It felt a little weird not to have anything to do.

_I wonder if I can go swimming later._ She brightened. _I wonder if they have a library here, maybe there'll be some books I haven't read. I have a week here, after all. I'll actually be able to finish a book._

A sudden clearing opened up in what must have been the middle of the courtyard, and Tsubaki stopped, blinking in the unexpected open space. Well, not completely open: both Mitsukuni-kun and Morinozuka-san were in the center, working silently.

Tsubaki almost caught her breath. The movements were smooth and practiced, it was almost like a dance, but so fast and powerful that she could _hear_the blows landing against skin. It was a surprise that she hadn't heard the dull thwacks from further back in the garden; the plants had acted as an excellent sound barrier.

Mitsukuni-kun was almost ridiculously tiny next to his cousin, but he moved so quickly, and was more often than not in the air, that most of the time they seemed to be eye to eye. The strikes were being made so rapidly that she couldn't even see half of them before she heard the sound of it. Morinozuka-san didn't seem to be restraining himself at all, despite the fact that he was practically twice Mitsukuni-kun's size, and after a moment, his hand snapped out.

Tsubaki sucked in a sudden breath. The blow had sent Mitsukuni-kun flying, over and under and in a spiral, to land on his feet a good ten feet away. The tiny blonde straightened up from his crouch, gingerly brushing the red spot on his cheek, before beaming.

"Yay, you didn't hold back. I'm happy."

"You did." It was the first words Tsubaki had actually heard Morinozuka-san utter, other than "Aa;" he had a very deep voice. Mitsukuni-kun laughed.

"You caught me! Habit, I guess."

"That –" Tsubaki wet her lips, her throat still a little dry. "That was incredible! I can throw people, but that –"

"Tsubaki-chan!" Mitsukuni-kun's beam grew wider. "I didn't know you were out here! You were so quiet!"

"How long have you been learning that?" She asked, unable to reconcile the Mitsukuni-kun who had been flying around in the air a moment ago and the Mitsukuni-kun smiling at her now. He laughed, picking up the pink rabbit and cuddling it.

"A while."

_Right…_ Tsubaki stopped. _Haninozuka. The twins mentioned something about this, didn't they? Martial arts families. I've read about martial arts families. Haninozuka and Morinozuka…feudal era. That's it._

"Wow," she said, finally. "Since the feudal era, right? That's…that's really incredible. Good morning, by the way."

A dark look flashed over Mitsukuni-kun's face. "What's good about it?"

"Eh?"

"Eheh, nothing." He beamed again. "I'm just sort of t-t-tiiired."

The word stretched out as he yawned, and Tsubaki was suddenly reminded quite forcibly of Yumi. Was it possible that the bright, sunny Mitsukuni-kun was crabby in the mornings?

Well, if it was anything compared to Yumi in the mornings, Tsubaki didn't want to spark an uproar. Forcing a smile, she closed her fingers tighter around her coffee cup and scrambled for an excuse.

"Sorry, I have to go…go and shower before breakfast." She took a few steps back. "It was a privilege watching you two. See you later."

With that, she escaped back into the remainder of the garden, only fully relaxing when she had closed the door to the courtyard behind her. Judging from that dark look she'd just barely caught, she'd treaded dangerously close to setting off a bomb.

_Nothing to do now but to actually take that shower._ Tsubaki sighed. _Again. Maybe I can find the library._

But this time there were no terrifyingly helpful maids to point her in the right direction. So she just headed back to her room, wondering whether she could just sit in there for the next hour. She hadn't really explored the room anyway.

It really was a pretty room. It was a pity she was only going to be using it for one more day. A heavy oak desk sat under the window, which looked out over the edge of the cliff she had climbed down the night before onto the ocean. The bed itself had a beautifully woven white coverlet and very soft pillows, one of which she grabbed and crushed against her stomach as she sank down onto the mattress, not really into the idea of exploring right now. The door to the bathroom was closed, but she knew from use that it was pretty, as well—mosaics and everything. There was another heavy wooden article of furniture up against the wall—an enormous dresser, which could probably hold an entire person if they tried.

_Might as well._

Someone had taken perhaps the cumulative half an hour she hadn't been in the room to put the clothes from the duffel bag into the dresser. In the upper half, anyway: there was a TV in the lower half, just like in a hotel, and Tsubaki blinked at it once or twice before catching sight of something. Grimacing, she pushed the clothes aside.

There it was. The thing she had been both wondering about and dreading since seeing the ocean. The maids had given her a swimsuit.

All in all, it wasn't that bad. She had a bikini back home, and she was comfortable in wearing it, though it wasn't as nice as this one. Light green with white and brown horizontal stripes, it had clearly been adjusted to fit her—_I should have never gone in to work on Sunday__—_and looked very new. She wondered if one of the hosts—most likely the twins, now that she was thinking about it—had a family that designed clothes. Come to think of it, Kaoru _had _mentioned something about that, and Haruhi too. She'd never seen any of these things on the rack at the local department store.

Without a word, she put the swimsuit on under her clothes before checking the clock and heading downstairs to the breakfast table. _Better safe than sorry, I have no idea what those crazies might want to do today._

Haruhi, the twins, Suou-san, Mitsukuni-kun, and Morinozuka-san were all in the dining room, talking quietly—well, as quietly as they could get, anyway. She had the distinct impression that it was never quieter than normal speech with these people, and that the louder it was, the more fun they had. She wanted nothing more than another cup of coffee, but the moment the twins caught sight of her, that plan fell to nothing.

"Sakuya and Nanami have done well," Hikaru said, looking extremely pleased. "Hitachiin products _do_ fit well on you, don't they?"

"Then again, they fit well on everyone," Kaoru added.

"I want no comments on my clothes or…anything relating to them," said Tsubaki firmly, wondering if she could escape within the next three minutes. _Hitachiin products. I should have guessed. So those are the maids' names._ "All I really want to do today is to go swimming, so if I'm allowed out of sight of the house I would like to go down to the beach."

"Eh?" Suou-san blinked at her. "Shou-hime, you don't need to ask. This is your birthday trip, remember?"

_Right. I forgot. I was kidnapped and I'm being forced to celebrate my own birthday. Joy._

"I hope you don't mind if I don't go swimming." Haruhi laughed a little. "I'm not really into that sort of thing. You all can, though. Have fun!"

"What? No, your swimsuit's already been picked out; you're not escaping it any longer!" Hikaru pounced. Haruhi sighed, as though this reaction was not entirely unexpected, and Suou-san began to shout at the top of his lungs—about what, Tsubaki wasn't really sure.

_Nothing to do now but wing it._"Do any of you know where the library is?" She poured another cup of coffee. "I was looking for it this morning but I couldn't find it."

"Ah, Kyouya-senpai might." Kaoru, who had been watching the fighting with a small smile on his face, blinked at her. "But you don't want to wake him up, he's a demon lord. We can go look for it if you want."

Tsubaki blinked this time. A twin actually offering to help her with something? It stank of a plot.

"You're going to lock me in a closet or something, aren't you?" Tsubaki asked, narrowing her eyes. Kaoru made an indignant noise.

"Nah, that'd be boring. And Haruhi would kill me." He shrugged. "If you don't want help, then fine. Go ahead. Get lost."

"Won't your twin miss you?"

"Nah." Kaoru shrugged again. "We're not always together, you know. Most of the time, sure, but not always. He can live on his own for a few minutes."

Tsubaki studied him for a few seconds longer before pushing her chair back. "Okay. Expedition time. Come on, fashion boy."

"Oi, that's a stupid nickname."

"You're the one who started calling me Shoumi."

"That was only once."

"So I get to call you fashion boy, once."

"Shoumi."

"Hey."

"You called me fashion boy twice."

_I thought this was the twin Haruhi said was easier to deal with on his own._ Tsubaki sighed. _If this is the easier version, I'd hate to get stuck somewhere with Hikaru._

"So…You're the younger twin, right?" Tsubaki said, after they'd left the main dining room. Kaoru didn't look at her for a moment; he was scanning the entrance hall, picking out doors.

"Huh? Yeah."

"You don't really have the vibe for it," she said after a moment. "You seem like you'd be the older twin. More responsible, you know?"

"I thought you just accused me of planning to lock you in a closet."

"Hey, yesterday you guys sort of dragged me into a limo, tied me up, and brought me all the way out here without telling me where we were going." Tsubaki raised an eyebrow. "I kind of have a right to distrust everything either of you say."

He mulled over this for a moment. "We should start with the second floor first. Come on."

_Don't ignore me!_"Okay." Tsubaki frowned. "You _are_the responsible one, though, right?"

"Where are you getting your information, anyway?"

"Haruhi." _Though she called it survival tactics._ "I think I had the entirety of last year compressed into an hour of learning."

"Probably not all of it." A slightly bitter smile crossed his face. "Even Haruhi has some things she has to hide."

"So you're the well-rounded versions of bishounen characters with secrets that actually make sense?" Tsubaki rolled her eyes. "Please don't tell me you were all abused as children. That's so cliché."

Kaoru stared at her for a moment after checking a bedroom. "You're really strange. How many cups of coffee have you had this morning?"

"Only two." She scowled. "And so what if I'm strange? You're not exactly normal yourself. Twincest?" Tsubaki opened another door. Billiards room. Maybe she could learn how to play pool. "Not really a pastime of normal people."

"That's for the host club." Kaoru shrugged. "Not that it's really any of your business."

"The host club isn't exactly normal either." God, how many rooms were there in this place? "Then again, you are all enormously rich and enormously bored, in Suou-san's words."

"We were, yeah."

_Right. Haruhi's a toy. They don't really have time for boredom anymore._ "It's nice that you have friends, at least." Tsubaki sighed. "I lost contact with all mine. Because…"

She couldn't say it. So she hastily changed the subject. "Mitsukuni-kun doesn't wake up well, does he?

"He's not as bad as Kyouya-senpai, but he's a low-blood-pressure demon-beast, yeah." He opened another door. "I never really noticed how many rooms there were."

"You've been here before?"

"Only once."

"Oh." Tsubaki thought for a second. "And Nekozawa-san is…?"

"Pretty much nocturnal, now that he's in college and can take night classes." He opened another door. "And he's still obsessed with the occult and stuff. Curse dolls. Spells. Voodoo."

"New Orleans." At the second odd look, Tsubaki put up both hands defensively. "Hey, it was full of voodoo when there were slaves there. Probably still is. And there's this inn that's one of the most haunted buildings in the world near there, we were talking about it last night."

Kaoru laughed. "Transylvania too, probably. Dracula. Round trip of the occult world."

A thought struck her as Kaoru started to turn another doorknob. "Hey, if this is Nekozawa-san's house, we should probably be a little more careful –"

"MURDERERS!"

The sudden scream cut her off mid-sentence, and Tsubaki shrieked in surprise. Kaoru yelped and stumbled out of the way, falling heavily to the floor as a hastily cloaked figure, one which she vaguely recognized, fled down the hallway, wailing in fear. After a moment, a part of the wall swung out and closed again, cutting off the scream with it.

Tsubaki put a hand up to her heart, breathing heavily. She couldn't even really speak. After a moment, Kaoru stood up and closed the door, looking like he was struggling not to laugh.

"Welcome to the dark side of photophobia."

It wasn't even really funny. Tsubaki stared at him for a moment, struck very much by the lack of humor in the statement, before laughter bubbled up her throat and spilled out her mouth. And, after a few seconds, she figured out that she wasn't able to stop.

For a few seconds, Kaoru simply stared at her. Then he started to chuckle, and after a few seconds, it progressed to fully formed whoops of laughter as he sagged against the wall and Tsubaki wiped tears of hilarity from her eyes.

"That wasn't meant to be funny, was it?" Tsubaki choked, once she could finally speak again. Kaoru wheezed a little.

"No, it wasn't."

They looked at each other for a few seconds before Tsubaki snorted, a strangled "Pfft!" that barely made it out of her throat. And that started the sniggering all over again.

* * *

_Tsubaki-chan seems to be adapting quite well,_Haruhi thought mildly, as the laughter echoed down the stairs. She was ignoring Tamaki-senpai and Hikaru. They were arguing again, Hikaru playfully, Tamaki-senpai quite seriously, about the benefits and detriments of forcing her into a swimsuit. Nekozawa-senpai's beach house had already started to work its magic—Haruhi was sure that this place could make even the most tightly wrapped of individuals let loose and have fun, which had probably been Kyouya-senpai's intentions in selecting the place.

Of course, judging by that scream that Tamaki-senpai and Hikaru had nearly drowned out, it wasn't really having that effect on Nekozawa-senpai himself.

"Haruhi, are you even listening?" Tamaki-senpai asked, looking stricken. Haruhi blinked.

"No, not really."

Tears filled his eyes, and Tamaki-senpai retreated to tear paper in the corner. Haruhi stood, brushing her lap free of crumbs, ignoring it. He'd be giving the puppy dog eyes soon enough, and she intended to be as far away as possible when that happened.

"Haruhi, where are you going?" Hikaru asked, scowling at his argument being interrupted. "You're not trying to escape, are you?"

"I can't climb down cliffs like Tsubaki, or drive like Kyouya-senpai, so it's not like I could." Haruhi pointed out. "You're in a mood this morning, Hikaru."

"Well, it just…feels weird." Hikaru hesitated. "Kind of. Right?"

"It's nice of you to be so clear about your feelings."

"Well, a newcomer. It feels…strange. Like someone's invading our world."

Haruhi hid a smile. She hadn't heard a perspective like that from Hikaru in a long time, but it was a little reassuring despite the fact that it was disquieting. He really was getting better at recognizing doors to the rest of the world.

"Didn't you and Kaoru want to expand your world?" Haruhi pointed out reasonably. "Tsubaki-chan could be a part of that, just like Mei-chan and the girls at the club and everyone else we know."

"It's not the same," Hikaru said stubbornly. "I don't know what it is."

"If you think about it for a while I'm sure it'll come to light." Haruhi patted his arm. "And meanwhile, I have to go upstairs."

"Why?"

"Because I brought my summer vacation homework and I want to at least get a little of it done today."

And without waiting for a response from any of them, Haruhi left the room, congratulating herself on having escaped them without being forced into a small room with the maids. She wasn't surprised that Tsubaki-chan had screamed. It was, after all, a natural reaction.

* * *

"Kaoru?"

"Yeah?"

"Are we lost?"

"No."

The answer came a little too quickly. Tsubaki sighed, leaning against the roughly carved stone wall. In their brackets, torches flickered, casting strange, ever-moving shadows over the walls. _What is it with men and getting lost? And what sort of place is this beach-house, anyway? It even has an underground, torch-lit tunnel. Craaazy…_

"We _are_ lost," Tsubaki said, raising her eyebrows at him. She felt very calm about being lost, for some reason. "Aren't we?"

Kaoru said nothing for a few seconds. Then a smile flashed over his face. "Yeah, probably."

_Dammit, I don't want a guarantee!_ "Why exactly does Nekozawa-san have catacombs under his house?"

"I actually don't think these are catacombs." Kaoru set a hand against the wall, staring down the dimly lit corridor. "According to my dad, catacombs were used in the European middle ages as worshipping places, or refuges from war, as well as a network of tombs. So usually, they have way more skeletons and crosses and stuff inside them."

"Are you saying that those things we saw earlier weren't skeletons?" Tsubaki asked waspishly, remembering the automatically opening closet and the clattering…_things _that had fallen out of it. She wasn't usually one to get scared of things like that, but, considering where they were…

She had screamed like a baby.

"They probably were, but I don't really want to go back and look. Do you?" At her silence, Kaoru smirked. "Besides, one or two skeletons do not a catacomb make."

"You're very calm about this."

"Nah, I'm crying inside. You're the calm one."

"Not really." Tsubaki slid down the wall until she was sitting on the ground, her back propped up against the stone. "This is so stupid. I could be making a delivery in Tokyo right now instead of dying of starvation in catacombs under a freaking beach-house resort. Who builds catacombs under a freaking beach-house resort?"

"I thought we'd established that these weren't catacombs."

"Does it really matter?" She scowled. "We're still probably going to die here."

"Nah. Someone will notice we've gone missing eventually. Nekozawa-senpai might be able to figure out what happened." Kaoru sat down across from her, sighing heavily. "I can't remember whether we made a left turn or right turn back at that fork, so it's not like we can work our own way out. And Tono needs a little freak-out, he's been low-key lately."

Tsubaki let the silence settle for a while. She wasn't particularly worried, though she was wondering, vaguely, what Tono—Suou-san, if she was making the appropriate conclusions here—was like when not low-key. The thought wasn't exactly reassuring.

"So what were you talking about earlier?" Tsubaki asked finally, remembering something. Kaoru blinked at her. "You said that even Haruhi has things to hide."

"I don't really think that's any of your business," Kaoru said, directing his gaze up towards the ceiling. "Besides, not my place to tell. It's hers. Oh, and Hikaru's and Tono's. Not mine."

"Seriously?" She stared at him for a moment. "Is it a love triangle?"

"Like I said, not my place to tell."

Tsubaki narrowed her eyes. "You've been switched, haven't you?"

"What?"

She made an impatient noise. "Haven't you ever seen _Invasion of the Body-Snatchers_? You've been switched. Are you going to kill me or just convert me to communism?"

"This proves it. You really _are_ strange."

"No, I'm panicking a little. There's a difference." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Besides, I think the thought of dying sort of makes courtesy moot, doesn't it?"

"Says the queen of courtesy."

Tsubaki snorted. "Whatever I am, I'm not that. My defining trait seems to be that I'm a misanthrope." She thought for a moment. "Or maybe my mood swings."

"So why are you so polite all the time?"

"Habit, I guess." Her bangs dangled over her eyes, and Tsubaki blew at them once or twice before tucking them behind her ears again. "My parents were rabid about etiquette. You've never had to please anyone, have you? I mean seriously, though, not…hosting."

"Not really." Kaoru blinked again. "What does it matter? You're not seriously going to tell me the story of your life, are you?"

"Which one are you, Kaoru or Hikaru?" Tsubaki snapped, stung. "I thought you were the _easier_one to deal with."

Something flashed across his face. "Most of the time, I guess you could say that."

"Most of the time?"

"Hey, it's not exactly comfortable in here." There was a snap to his voice that Tsubaki hadn't heard before, and it shut her up for a second.

_He doesn't like down here either._ Tsubaki softened a little. _At least I know there's some grain of sanity deep down._"At least we're not in Paris."

"What?"

"Haven't you ever seen pictures of the Parisian catacombs?" Tsubaki shuddered. "The walls are made of bone. Not exactly a reassuring atmosphere."

"No, I know what you're talking about. I've been there. I meant…" He stared at her. "You've seen pictures of the Parisian catacombs?"

Tsubaki bristled. "Why, is there a problem with that?"

"You really are prickly."

"Genius." She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I've seen pictures of the Parisian catacombs. I was reading _Hunchback of Notre Dame_a few years ago and wondered what they looked like, so, I searched it online. I had nightmares for a week, but it completely inspired my parents. They won an award for some of their photographs of the Crypt of the Sepulchral Lamp."

"How many books have you read, anyway?"

"Does it matter?" Tsubaki sighed. "I don't even know if I can count them anymore. And before you ask, I did, in fact, climb down the cliff to the beach. I used to go rock climbing all the time with my parents. Besides it was only two dozen feet, and the water below was at least eight meters deep. Perfectly safe." She thought about it for a minute. "Climbing and remembering things are practically the only things I'm good at, after all."

"Why do you run yourself down all the time?" Kaoru asked, looking quite serious. "That's the third time you've insulted yourself in the past ten minutes."

"Why shouldn't I?" Tsubaki flared. "It's not like I can do anything else. I study because I have nothing else to do, I take care of Yumi because I love her and because I have to, but I can't even stop myself from getting kidnapped and lost in catacombs. Sorry for being a little freaked out here!"

After a few seconds, her temper died down, and she bent her head, letting her bangs hide her eyes. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. Or asked which twin you were. Haruhi mentioned something about that."

"No, don't be." To her utter astonishment, Kaoru was smiling faintly. "Honesty isn't something to apologize for, you know?"

Tsubaki stared for a moment. _Maybe he's not so bad after all._

"So, why _do_ you read so much?"

"I want to know things." She drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. At least she wasn't sitting on bones; she doubted either Hikaru or Kaoru could deal with her ruining another outfit the maids had chosen for her with decomposed flesh. "Don't you?"

"Sometimes." He sighed. "Sometimes it's easier not to know things."

"You're lying," Tsubaki said, after studying him for a few seconds. _He wants honesty? He'll get some._ "You're lying to humor me. I hate it when people do that."

"I'm actually not." He sighed. "Really. I was just thinking."

She digested this. "About what?"

"Why you're so defensive. It's because your parents aren't here, isn't it?"

Her heart shriveled up and dropped through the floor. _Haruhi was right. It hasn't even been twenty-four hours since I came here and I'm already getting asked about it._"Frankly I don't see how that's any of your business and I would appreciate it if you drop it right now."

"I think that you pretend to be polite because that's what your parents want, and that you just kept it up so you wouldn't scare your little sister." He wasn't looking at her; instead, he was staring at the torch above her head. "But you're not particularly worried about being rude to us, because you have an excuse to be angry. So, in reality, you're just being wishy-washy about who you really want to be."

"Or I just don't like you and I don't mind showing it," Tsubaki said, irritated. _Does he think he's a psychologist? Rich bastard._

"Or that," he agreed mildly. "Either way you're just passive-aggressive. Maybe you should just go to a mental home and get it over with."

_I just wanted to find a book._Tsubaki put her head in her hands, too tired to do anything else. _That's all I wanted. A book. I think the world hates me._

"I hope that your future husband and/or boyfriend doesn't find out about this fabulous aspect of your personality until they can't get away." Kaoru smirked. "Otherwise you'll never get any."

"See, this is why I hate you people." Tsubaki scowled at him. _Bastard._"Drop it, fashion boy."

"Though I don't think you'll have much trouble." A deep sigh. "That boy from the bakery seemed to have a big crush on you, anyway."

"What?" Tsubaki blinked at him. "Really? Are you serious?"

"Are you dense? He was almost as red as you were. We were watching you guys from in the kitchen for at least five minutes. Rin and Marie-san were too, just so you know. As a warning."

Tsubaki groped for words. _Does_everyone_have to know_everything_about my love life?_"Eavesdropping is rude."

"If we didn't eavesdrop, we wouldn't know anything," Kaoru pointed out. "Are you seriously so dense that you didn't notice how red he was when you pointed out that Hatshepsut thing?"

"I noticed it. I didn't discern it. There's a difference," Tsubaki said royally, trying not to start grinning. "He seriously was blushing?"

"Duh." He tapped his chin. "You're really into this guy, aren't you?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business," she repeated, scowling harder. _I don't know whether I want to kill him or not._"Why are you so interested, anyway?"

"Because we're friends…I guess you could say." He sighed. "And I'm bored. I haven't messed with anyone's love-life in a while."

Tsubaki rolled her eyes, laughing a little to hide her inner turmoil. _Us? Friends? Seriously?_ "You're evil."

"No, that's Kyouya-senpai." He had a wicked grin on his face. "You've never seen him go Shadow King, have you? Not exactly entertaining, but you'll never, ever forget it. Believe me."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." Kaoru frowned. "He and Tono are best friends, though. Insane as it may seem. They're really close."

"The King of Darkness and the King of Idiots?" Tsubaki snorted. "You guys are even more cliché than I thought you would be."

"Hey, clichés typically have some sort of basis in reality."

"So that makes all blondes dumb and all people who wear glasses smart?" Tsubaki thought about that for a second. "You know what, clichés _do_have a basis in reality. There are two examples of them right upstairs."

Kaoru laughed. "Yeah. I guess you're right."

Tsubaki smiled back. _Maybe we can be friends._

Something buzzed, and to Tsubaki's utter shock, Kaoru removed a cell phone from in his pocket, pressed a button, and set it against his ear.

"Hikaru." He listened for a minute. "Well, actually, no. We're in the secret passages somewhere. Can you find us?" After a few more seconds, he nodded. "If you find one of Nekozawa-senpai's servants they should be able to get us out. There's a wall on the second floor that opens out, near Nekozawa-senpai's room. I think." He laughed. "No, I'm not dead. It's just dark in here. Hurry up, please."

A handful of seconds later, he hung up, and Tsubaki imploded.

"You had a cell phone all this time and _you never decided to use it_?"

"What's the problem?"

"The problem is that we could have been out by now, fashion boy!"

"Hey, I thought we were out of range. I checked it a couple times, it wouldn't work until now—let go of me!"

"I'm going to kill you, Hitachiin! See if I ever believe you about anything ever again!"

"Watch the hair, Shoumi!"

* * *

Tamaki-senpai was pacing around the living room. According to his story, neither he nor Hikaru had noticed the disappearance of the new invader (Hikaru's words) and Hikaru's twin until Hani-senpai had turned to ask Kaoru something and found him gone. They had immediately jumped to conclusions about where they had gone and what, exactly, they were doing. After five minutes of wild accusations from Tamaki-senpai, and defensive words from Hikaru as to his brother's character, Haruhi reappeared, pointed out that they had gone to find the library, and revealed that despite the fact she had been in the library for that same half-an-hour, she had seen neither hide nor hair of Kaoru or Tsubaki-chan.

This had sent Tamaki-senpai into something resembling hysterics, and Hikaru running upstairs to check the bedrooms and see if they had gone up there. Ten minutes later, Tamaki-senpai had calmed down enough—at least, superficially—to tell Haruhi the story, and Hikaru had returned with a cell phone, and was trying to reach his brother on that. The continual message of "We're sorry, but this number is temporarily unavailable, please try again later –" was making Hikaru even more worried, if that was possible, and nothing they said could calm him down. Tamaki-senpai wasn't helping matters.

"They fell off the cliff!" Tamaki-senpai flung his hands in the air, looking ready to weep. "They went walking and fell off the cliff to their doom!"

"Shut up, Tono!"

"They were looking for the library, Tamaki-senpai, I seriously doubt they went outside to do that." Haruhi scowled at him. "They're probably just lost in the house somewhere. It is quite large, after all."

"Oh." Tamaki-senpai thought for a moment. "Doesn't Shou-hime have suicidal tendencies?"

"A misunderstanding," Haruhi clarified. "If you have nothing more to say than wild suppositions barely based on fact, senpai, please stop talking."

Tamaki-senpai retreated to continue work on his hamster home. Hikaru swore under his breath and hung up, looking frustrated and torn.

"Why didn't he stop to explain where he was going?" he asked the room at large. "He always does. Why didn't he this time?"

"You and Tamaki-senpai were having too much fun arguing. He didn't want to disturb you." Haruhi reached out, patting Hikaru's hand. "I'm sure they're fine. Don't worry so much. They wouldn't leave the house, so they're probably just locked in a room somewhere. Don't panic."

Hikaru looked quickly away. Hani-senpai turned to Mori-senpai, tears in his eyes.

"Do you think they're okay, Takashi?"

"Aa." Mori-senpai nodded, and Hani-senpai relaxed his grip on Usa-chan a little. But only a little.

"Really?"

Mori-senpai smiled a little, and Haruhi couldn't hide one of her own. "Aa."

Hani-senpai blinked a few times. "Okay."

Hikaru opened his phone again, pressing the speed dial, as Haruhi turned to look at Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai. "I was actually going to ask, Hani-senpai. How's college going?"

"It's fuuuun!" Hani-senpai brightened right up. "I have lots and lots of friends, and we're both doing well. Takashi likes jurisprudence a lot!" He beamed. "Don't you, Takashi?"

"Aa."

"That's good." Haruhi smiled. "I've been meaning to ask for a while; it just sort of slipped my mind until now."

"It's still not reaching him." Hikaru said desperately, getting up and starting to pace himself. "Damn it! Why isn't the phone picking up?"

"It could be that they're out of range," Haruhi pointed out. "This coast is filled with pockets of no reception; I remember that from last year. Or it could be that he just turned his phone off. We shouldn't read too much into it, Hikaru, so breathe."

"Lost forever in the depth of the ocean!" Tamaki-senpai wailed. "Trapped in a skeleton-filled closet until death!"

"Be quiet, Tamaki-senpai!"

"Attacked by rampaging lions!"

"Shut up, Tono!"

"Hikaru, Ha-Haruhiiiii…."

Haruhi massaged the bridge of her nose, unable to do anything else. If Tamaki-senpai had the bit between his teeth with such silly stories, there was nothing any of them could do to shake him out of it. _Why did I fall in love with this guy, again?_

"I'll try from other rooms in the house," Hikaru said finally, heading for the door. "If there are pockets of no reception. I might find a place that can work. And I'll check everywhere all over again, get the maids looking. You all stay here."

"Okay."

As soon as Hikaru left the room, Haruhi pillowed her head on her arms, exhausted. She was worried, but not so much. Tsubaki-chan had done a similar disappearing act just last night. It wasn't like she was dead or something.

"Hey, Haru-chan, did you know?" Hani-senpai said brightly, twirling out of his chair. "Tsubaki-chan has someone she likes!"

Haruhi had gathered as much from the group conversation the night before, but decided to play along anyway. "You know something about it, Hani-senpai?"

"Mm-hm! His name is Tousaku Makoto, and he used to go to middle school with her!" Hani-senpai laughed. "Hika-chan and Kao-chan made Kyou-chan look him up. They say he likes her too!"

"That's nice." Haruhi smiled. "They'll be happy?"

"Probably, probably!" Hani-senpai beamed at her. "Hey, once we find Kao-chan and Tsubaki-chan, can we go swimming?"

"Probably," Haruhi parroted. "If they're okay, of course we can."

"Yay! Maybe we'll find more seashells!"

_Probably not, considering there's no Black Onion Squad supplying them this time._" Maybe we will."

Twenty minutes later, Hikaru came rushing back in to tell them that Nekozawa-senpai's butler and maid had ventured down into "the worshipping tunnels" to recover the lost members of their little group on the information given to him by Kaoru via phone.

Ten minutes after that, both Tsubaki-chan and Kaoru had been led to the living room, both of them covered in dust, dirt, and cobwebs. Hikaru had attached himself to his twin, practically at the hip, and the moment he saw them, Hani-senpai had promptly broke down into tears and tackled them both, something that Kaoru took with good grace and Tsubaki-chan looked incredibly startled about. During the entirety of it, Tamaki-senpai prattled on about how he knew where they were all along.

And ten minutes after that, Haruhi had been forced into a swimsuit and they had all gone down the stairs to the beach, leaving Kyouya-senpai to sleep in until noon. Throughout the entirety of the drama, he hadn't once opened his eyes.

* * *

A/N:

Edited, expanded, and revised. 8.20.13.


	6. Chapter 6

_DISCLAIMER: __I do not own any aspect of Ouran High School Host Club. The club and all of its accouterments belongs to the honorable Hatori Bisco-sensei. If I owned it, then I would know what happens, darn it!_

_Okay, so I've posted a poll on my profile re: who Tsubaki ends up with. If you're interested, go vote!_

_I've recently run into a major block with this story, and it might take me a while to get the next chapter up, but don't worry - I intend to not only finish _Wonderland_, but post a sequel to it, which I have entitled _Looking-Glass, _which takes place a 'plot convenient amount of time' after _Wonderland _ends. I hope you'll enjoy both stories! _

_And today, it's Nekozawa-senpai who takes center stage! Yay...(shakes Beezlenef toy)_

_Thanks to: chockolaaate, Woopa, KageNoNeko, JL724, Nitrea, Zurla Adams, and Dragon of Twilight for their reviews! _

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Chapter Six  
_I quite agree with you. And the moral of that is: Be what you would seem to be, or if you'd like it put more simply: Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.  
_~ The Duchess

Soaked, sun-drenched, and exhausted.

That was a good term for what she felt like.

Tsubaki draped her arm over the side of the chaise, balancing her book on her stomach as she held it upright with her other hand. Haruhi had shown her the library the evening after the whole "trying to find it but ending up in the catacombs" debacle, and she had been inside for the entirety of the next morning, simply scanning the shelves. She wouldn't possibly be able to finish any by the time she had to go back home, but at least she could feel it in her hands.

_I wonder if I could borrow it and then send it back._ She trailed her fingers through the sand, thinking absently at the back of her mind. _Nekozawa-san probably wouldn't mind. I could give him my phone number so he could check up on it._

The twins, who had snitched her cell phone from her apron pocket while kidnapping her, had returned it to her that morning, with apologies that Haruhi had probably put them up to. Until now, she'd used the phone in her room to call and check up on Yumi and Marie-san, usually right before Yumi went to bed, and Marie-san still sounded as cheerful as ever. Yumi seemed happy as well, which was good. Marie-san seemed to be taking better care of her than Tsubaki had thought she would. _Marie-san – Suou-san with more brains._ They were both French, after all. Maybe it would be a good idea for her to introduce them.

_Gack. No. No host club in D__é__lice. Never, never, never. Just because I have to stay in the same house with them doesn't mean that I have to get used to them. EVER._

The thought had ruined her appetite for Machiavelli. Tsubaki closed _The Prince_, feeling infinitely more sour than she had before. Maybe it was the reading material. It was a little depressing, now that she thought about it.

But she lacked the energy to walk all the way back up the hill to the house to get another book. Tsubaki propped her back against the chaise, watching Mitsukuni-kun play in the water. He, at least, was possibly the only member of the host club she could trust. Other than Haruhi, of course. And maybe Kaoru, when she wasn't trying to kill him. The rest of them remained in doubt. They had yet to prove themselves to her.

Something violently yellow, white, green, and pink dropped onto her sunglasses. Tsubaki spluttered, smacking the beach ball away, and bolted upright, glaring daggers.

"Don't _do _that!"

"Eh?" Hikaru caught the beach ball before it went more than two feet, looking pleased with himself. "What, can't handle a beach ball? You haven't left that chair since you stopped swimming, come on, do something else. You're boring just lying there."

"I could kick you, if you want." Tsubaki said sweetly, leaning back again. "Or maybe leave sea slugs in your bed. I heard there are a bunch around here I can harvest."

He made a face. "You're disgusting, Shoumi."

"I'll write that in my notebook of best comebacks." She said, opening her book again. "And don't call me Shoumi."

"Hikaru, weren't we playing a game?" Haruhi, back in her shirt and short ensemble – Tsubaki didn't envy her a jot; her swimsuit allowed not only maximum sunlight exposure, but let her jump into the ocean at any moment she wished – ran up, taking the beach ball back. "Don't pick on Tsubaki-chan."

"I'm the one getting picked on here!" Hikaru said indignantly. Tsubaki smiled, tilting her sunglasses forward a little.

"What, you can't fight back? Shame."

"Both of you stop it." Haruhi said, giving first Hikaru, then Tsubaki an exasperated look. "It's ridiculous to have to listen to. Maybe I should just lock you in a room and see if you both get over it that way."

"Please don't. I don't want to be a murderer before I turn seventeen." Tsubaki said mildly, turning back to her book. "If there's a problem, I'd be happy to discuss it."

"I don't know." Someone took her book, and suddenly, Hikaru's face was far too close to her own. Tsubaki felt the heat rise in her face, and tried to snatch the book back. "Is there a problem, Shoumi?"

"Give that back." She muttered, making a half-hearted grab. _I ask again: how is it possible for a normal girl like Haruhi not to have suffered heart failure because of these boys?_

"Aw." A finger brushed her nose. "You're blushing."

"Not out of any affection for you, I assure you." Tsubaki said fiercely, finally closing her fingers over the book. "Now get out of my space before I break a thumb."

He laughed. But he left her space rather quickly all the same.

"That's what's known as picking on people, Hikaru." Haruhi sighed, giving him the beach ball back. "If the game is done, I'd like to go back up to the house and start working on homework. I'm not finished yet, after all. Tsubaki-chan, do you want to join me?"

"Mine's not here. I'll have to brave the bullies for a few minutes longer." Tsubaki smiled. "I want to savor the sun for as long as I can. I'm heading right back to work as soon as I get home, after all."

"Aw, that's boring." Hikaru continued to mutter all the way back to the volleyball nets. Tsubaki rolled her eyes and flipped back to her page.

The prospect of getting back to work was, actually, a good one. At least, in her mind. A week of vacation was four days too many, really; she still had those four days to go before heading back home. Sure, this was for her birthday, but she had completely forgotten it. She was itching to see her sister again, and (for some reason) to get back to Délice and start packaging cakes again. It felt weird not to have anything to do.

Of course, she had summer homework to do, but setting that aside…

That begged the question, though: did the host club intend to continue…well, practically stalk her over the rest of the summer? It was a disturbing thought. Not that she didn't like them and all (some of them, anyway) but the idea of having to keep them at arm's length all the time, especially in Rin's presence, was one that made her nervous.

_For this may be said of men generally: they are ungrateful, fickle, feigners and dissemblers, avoiders of danger, eager for gain. While you benefit them they offer their possessions, their lives, and their sons, as I said before, when the need to do so is far off. But when you are hard pressed, they turn away. A ruler who has relied completely on their promises, and has neglected to prepare other defenses, will be ruined, because friendships that are acquired with money, and not through greatness and nobility of character, are paid for but not secured, and prove unreliable just when they are needed._

Tsubaki closed the book on that note, setting it on the table beside her and closing her eyes. She'd never thought that a private beach could be so relaxing. Of course, she'd imagined it, but she'd never ever dreamed she'd be allowed access to one. She had soaked in the ocean all morning and spent half the afternoon soaking in the sun. Sure, she would probably be red as a lobster by the time she was done, but it would be worth it.

"You and Hikaru don't seem to get along, do you?"

"Kaoru." Tsubaki blinked at him. "No, it seems your brother likes to pick on me."

"_I'm the one getting picked on_!" Hikaru bellowed, missing the beach ball Morinozuka-san had punted. It hit him in the head, rebounding over the net, and Kaoru sighed.

"He means well."

"Especially when he drops a beach ball on my head." Tsubaki said, opening Machiavelli again but not scanning the text. "Honestly, I know you two are identical, but are you related?"

He gave her a dark look. Tsubaki rolled her eyes.

"If you couldn't tell, that was a sarcastic comment."

"You're in full flow today." Kaoru commented, propping his chin on his hand. "You haven't been this acerbic since the catacombs incident."

"That's all _you_ know." Tsubaki turned a page without looking at it. Her sunglasses hid the lack of eye movement, so she couldn't get accused of being irritated, at least. "Ask my sister when we get back. If I decide to spend any time with any of you after that. This is still, technically, a kidnap, you know."

"Right." Kaoru sounded very amused. "You look appropriately terrified."

"Don't I?" After a few seconds, Tsubaki snapped her book closed again and slid the sunglasses off her nose, propping herself up on her elbow. "Honestly, I don't know why we fight all the time. I know it's probably irritating, but I just get the feeling he doesn't like me."

"I'm surprised any of us like you." Kaoru said. Tsubaki made a face at him, pushing his shoulder with her book in frustration.

"_I'm_ surprised I even talk to you."

"It's called charm." He smirked. "Irresistible."

"Aren't we full of ourselves today."

"Hikaru…well." He shrugged. "Hikaru is Hikaru. If you two don't start getting along, you're definitely going to kill each other. There's no other solution."

"That's your opinion. I could just kill him and survive with a majestic scar."

He took the book from her. "You really are in a mood."

"It's because people keep taking my book." She raised her eyebrows at him. "Please give it back."

"What, so you can keep pretending to read it?"

_Caught._ She made another face. "You're the one in a mood."

"It's called displacement. I've been reading about psychology, so don't argue with me." He tapped the top of her head with the book. "Either we can throw you in the ocean so you cool off a bit or get your head out of whatever uncomfortable place you've shoved it."

Tsubaki snatched the book back. "I'm not going to comment on that."

"Fine with me."

With that, he walked away. Tsubaki bit her lip, feeling ever so slightly guilty. She knew he'd been trying to help; she hadn't needed to snap at him like she had. Of course, he'd dumped just as much on her, but that was a reaction she was getting used to. Kaoru could be nicer, sweeter, gentler, and more patient than his brother, but when you finally managed to irritate him? He turned into Hikaru on a bad day.

"That was interesting."

Tsubaki rolled over, flopping back when she saw who it was. She didn't get along with Ootori-san either. He made her nervous, for some reason. She hadn't yet seen the "Shadow King" that Kaoru had mentioned, but Ootori Kyouya was…well, creepy. No other word for it.

"I didn't mean to make him angry." Tsubaki said, sliding her sunglasses back on her nose and closing her eyes. Maybe, if she pretended to fall asleep, she could get him to go away.

"I wasn't talking about Kaoru, actually." She could hear the crunch of dried sand under sandals, and then the click of a laptop being set on the glass table to her left. Suou-san had vacated the other chaise over three hours before, so she couldn't claim that she was saving it for him. "You and Hikaru don't get along."

"No." Tsubaki agreed politely. "I don't think we do."

"An interesting development." After an artificial ding from the computer, the keyboard started up. No more statements seemed forthcoming.

_Damn my curiosity. _Tsubaki sat up, opening her eyes and turning to look at him. "What do you mean? Is everything all right?"

"You could say that." Light glinted off his glasses. "Your personality, it seems, is typical of those who appreciate the little devil type at the actual club meetings. However, it seems that your extended interaction with our…true personalities, you might say, has put you off the possibility of joining the ranks of Hitachiin fans. To our detriment, of course." He added, with a wide smile. "We do, truly, appreciate every customer we get."

_In different ways, I'm sure._ Tsubaki thought sourly. She hitched an equally fake smile onto her face. "Oh, no. It's my loss not to be able to join the ranks of Hitachiin fans, but honestly, I highly doubt I can afford your rates."

"You might be correct there." He said, almost thoughtfully. Tsubaki almost scowled before she caught herself. _You know exactly how correct it is, you bastard. I don't doubt you've gone through the contents of my bank account._ "A pity."

"For both of us." Tsubaki picked up _The Prince _again, unable to keep herself from scowling once she hid her face behind its pages.

"You and Kaoru seem to get on well, however."

_Agh. Why are you talking to me?_ "We do?"

"I believe that it's easy enough to see." Ootori-san said, his keyboard never slowing. "Your personalities seem to complement each other well."

"You aren't planning on matchmaking, are you?" Tsubaki's false smile grew even wider. "I would be flattered, but I'm afraid I'm already interested in someone else." _You don't need to know it's just a one-sided thing right now._

"Ah, yes. Tousaku Makoto-kun, was it?" At Tsubaki's lack of an answer, he pushed his glasses up his nose. "A good student, if nothing else."

_What's that supposed to mean? _"If you say so." Tsubaki said, her voice a little tighter than before. If she could have hit him and managed to get away with it, she would have. "What are you working on, Ootori-san?"

"Account balancing, in a matter of speaking."

"An interesting topic to think about while sitting on the beach."

"As is _The Prince._"

"Touché." Tsubaki said, opening her book again. "But I chose Machiavelli because I've been interested in reading it for a long time, and I haven't had the time to work on it until now. As soon as I get back, I'll be back to work and unable to read much of anything. On the other hand, you seem to have brought your work with you, Ootori-san."

"Machiavelli is an interesting choice."

"I'm interested in the Medicis and the Borgias. And I can read English, so it isn't really a problem."

"Can you?"

"My grandmother taught me. She died two years ago, but I read it and speak it as often as I can." Tsubaki switched to English. "See, I can practice on you, since you seem to know it."

"What gave it away?" Ootori-san replied, speaking it quite well for someone not taught by a native. Tsubaki smiled.

"The fact that you didn't ask, and that you seemed singularly unimpressed with the fact that I can, in fact, read and speak English."

"Ah." He digested this for a moment before switching back to Japanese. "An interesting observational tactic."

"Everyone else I've mentioned it to has either had their eyeballs fall out of their head or try to pretend they can speak it as well as I can." Tsubaki turned a page. "I'm not blind. You did neither, which meant that your knowing English was practically a given."

"You're quite talented."

"Only in one or two ways, like rock climbing. I'm not blind to my faults, as I'm sure Kaoru will tell you."

"Really."

"I'm impatient, I'm stubborn to the point of selfishness, I don't trust easily, I'm often sarcastic to the point of rudeness and cruelty. I'm impetuous, have next to no self-esteem, and, as Kaoru probably mentioned, I hide behind courtesy in order to make sure I'm not hurt." It was cleansing, to lay out her flaws like this. "I also tend to judge people without getting to know them and hide behind books in order to fool people into thinking that I'm smart."

"Like you're doing now?"

"Just like." She turned another page. "Am I fooling you?"

"It depends on whether you're reading that because you're interested or because you're trying to pretend."

"That depends on whether you'll believe me when I say I'm interested or not."

"What reason would I have to disbelieve you?"

"A few." Tsubaki turned another page. "First of all, the fact that I'm reading _The Prince _either says I want to become a politician or I'm interested in politics, and as my grandma always said, it's not really wise to trust a politician. Second of all, you probably heard from Haruhi that I read about Nazi Germany, which is another radically different and, while beneficial in some minor ways, completely dehumanizing political state. If you connect those two, you could be thinking that I'm a radical political thinker and they're always dangerous to believe until you actually know the extent of their beliefs."

"Of course, the fact that you're admitting this fact to me could also be untrustworthy." Ootori-san pointed out, without looking up from his computer screen. Tsubaki brightened. _I haven't had a debate like this since Megumi left. Even if he is creepy, this is actually kind of fun. _"Which means that either you're telling the complete truth as to your previous statements about your faults, or you're lying about everything and thus you aren't interested in politics at all and are simply reading Machiavelli to improve your image."

"And thus continue to further my own faults by making people believe I'm intelligent enough to actually understand what I'm reading."

"Which leaves the observer to follow their emotional instincts as to why you're actually reading it as well as your political aspirations." Ootori-san finished. "Personally I believe that while you might read some books to establish your character as an intelligentsia, the fact that you spent over an hour in the library this morning indicates that you spent a great deal of time selecting your book, which also indicates that you've read many of the volumes in Nekozawa-senpai's library. This means that you're truly interested in reading it."

"Or, I spent a great deal of time selecting exactly the right book to make people believe I'm smart." Tsubaki said, closing her book and staring up at the blue, blue sky. "Don't you think?"

"Considering the character that you have been showing the rest of us, I'd say it was unlikely."

"What if that character is fake?"

"Also unlikely. Judging by your previous statements, I'd say the polite facade you were using at the beginning was the fake one, and the personality you seem to reveal with Kaoru, and, at times, Haruhi, is the true one."

_Did he interrogate everyone else about this before even speaking a word to me?_ "You would probably be right." Tsubaki said, her smile growing a little less fake. "I tend to let loose a bit around people I'm friends with."

"Meaning you trust Haruhi and Kaoru but not the rest of us."

"Meaning I've spoken _extensively_ to Haruhi, Kaoru, and Mitsukuni-kun, enough to be close acquaintances, but not the rest of you."

"Yet you don't show this other personality to Hani-senpai."

"No. Mitsukuni-kun reminds me of my sister. I try to keep the sarcasm to the minimum while around my sister and Mitsukuni-kun."

"He's quite intelligent and capable, you know." Ootori-san pushed his glasses up his nose again. "He could probably handle it."

"We're talking about the eighteen-year-old boy who cries when he's told that there's no more chocolate in the pantry?" Tsubaki raised both eyebrows. "I'm willing to believe that he's quite mature about some things, but some of my acerbic comments might reduce him to hysterics."

Ootori-san said nothing. He fiddled with his glasses again before resuming the lightning-fast clicking of the computer. Tsubaki blinked once or twice; when had he stopped typing? She hadn't noticed.

"You said you had several reasons for me to disbelieve you?"

"Well, actually, only three." Tsubaki said. "The first two you've already heard, and the third is one of my own faults. And I think it might be one of yours, as well."

This seemed to surprise him. "Yes?"

Tsubaki took off her sunglasses, folded them, and set them on the glass-topped table before answering. "You don't really trust people either, do you, Ootori-san?"

He said nothing. He simply looked at her for a moment.

"Tsubaki-chan!" Mitsukuni-kun waved at her from the ocean. "Come and swim! Please? Takashi says that we can go looking for tide pools!"

"Be right there." Tsubaki called back, sighing lightly. "Please excuse me, Ootori-san. It was nice talking to you."

"Yes." He answered automatically, as Tsubaki ran off.

_Didn't think I would survive that._ She thought a little while later, making appreciative noises over the starfish Mitsukuni-kun was pointing out. _I wonder what Yumi, Marie-san, and Tousaku-kun are doing right now._

–

_I miss nee-chan._

She didn't really have a right to, Yumi knew that. She'd seen how hard her sister had been working to keep them going. And despite what most people seemed to think, she wasn't stupid. But the fact remained that she didn't even know where her sister was. That made it worse.

"Yumi-chan, what are you doing out here?" Marie-san pushed the balcony door open fully, coming outside to sit next to her. "Are you missing Tsubaki-chan?"

"No." Yumi said. She had to pretend she didn't. Otherwise nee-chan would come home early and get irritated with her.

"It's okay if you do." Marie-san said, putting a hand on Yumi's back and rubbing gently. Yumi relaxed a little. It reminded her of Tsubaki-nee-chan doing exactly the same thing when she had a bad cough. "Other people might think that Tsubaki-chan's being quite irresponsible for doing this, but I don't. I don't think that girl has had any contact with friends or even family since she started working so hard three months ago, running herself into the dirt to take care of both herself and you, and she did a fabulous job of it. But the fact remains, Tsubaki-chan is only sixteen years old, as of last Saturday. I don't think she could have kept it up for much longer without getting herself exhausted and collapsing one of these days, and that would take a lot longer than a week to recover from. Do you understand, Yumi-chan?"

"I know." Yumi couldn't help it – tears filled her eyes. "But I want her to come home. I want to go home, Marie-san."

"It's only three more days, sweetie." Marie-san said soothingly. "Two more nights and Tsubaki-chan will be home safe and sound. Can you handle that?"

Yumi thought for a moment. Two more nights. Three more days. "What time is she coming home?"

"We go to meet her plane at around six in the evening on Saturday, at least, according to the friends I spoke to on Sunday." Marie-san said. "And let me tell you, I don't view taking care of you as a chore at all. Ryouji and I enjoy having you around, Yumi-chan, don't worry about us."

Yumi had been a little worried about that. She smiled faintly at Marie-san before returning to her dedicated study of the horizon, her arms and legs sticking through the railing of the balcony. "I like it here. But I want to go home."

"I know." Marie-san patted the top of her head. "Would you believe me if I said almost exactly the same thing happened to me when I was your age?"

"What?" Yumi twisted her neck to look the baker in the face. "Really?"

"Mm-hm. My parents decided they needed some time away and dumped my on my aunt for two weeks. My aunt never liked me, so it probably felt a lot longer to me than it actually was. It took a long time for me to forgive my parents for leaving me with her." She smiled sadly. "Of course, I was only four, your age. But the fact remained that I couldn't forgive my parents. I hope that you forgive Tsubaki-chan a little faster."

Yumi frowned. She was angry, but she didn't really get this talk of forgiveness. She understood, wasn't that enough?

Marie-san must have been reading her face, because her smile grew wider. "You might think it's enough, Yumi-chan, to understand, but it isn't. Otherwise, why would you be angry?"

"I don't like my aunt either. But I don't hate you, Marie-san." Yumi said, a little confused. "You're nice to me."

"Well, that's nice to hear." Marie-san laughed. "I'm glad I haven't turned into my aunt. You know what she used to do?"

"No."

"Whenever I broke one of her many rules, she would make me stand outside, facing the back door, for hours and hours and hours. It felt like hours and hours and hours, anyway. Since it was the wintertime, I didn't always have my shoes on, so my toes would get very, very cold, and when she finally let me back in, sometimes I would be so angry with her I would accidentally on purpose knock a cup over and get sent outside all over again."

"Really?"

"Really." She dug her fingers into Yumi's sides, eliciting a shrieking giggle. "My aunt wasn't nearly as nice as I am!"

"Stop!"

"Not until you say uncle!"

–

"Tousaku, what do you think?"

"What?" Makoto blinked, perched on the ladder up to one of the higher shelves as his boss, the indomitable Nonaka-sensei, peered up at him from below. Nonaka-sensei made an exasperated noise.

"I was discussing the location of the mummy of Nefertiti, boy, please pay attention."

"I thought they found that." Makoto said, in an attempt to recover.

"That woman thinks she's found it, but two earring holes and a wig mean next to nothing." He flapped his hand. "Of course, the hands were placed in the position for royalty, I'll grant that, but that simply means she could be some far distant cousin from the royal family. It matters not."

"Oh."

"For God's sake, boy, what's wrong with your brain today?" Nonaka-sensei scowled. "Your head is in the clouds far more often than usual. Explain in clinical terms, before you end up falling off the ladder."

Makoto paused. He slid the book he was holding onto the shelf again.

"Women troubles." Nonaka-sensei snorted derisively. "How could I tell? You're been mooning around. If I wasn't well aware that you're single, boy, I'd say your girl just ditched you."

_No, she was kidnapped and apparently held hostage by people I've never seen before and had no idea she was friends with._ Makoto thought sourly. He couldn't exactly say that to Nonaka-sensei, though. He liked the old man, but he wasn't really up to hearing his scathing opinions on Shou.

"You're ignoring me, boy. I hate it when you ignore questions."

"It's nothing, really." Makoto said, starting down the ladder again. "Honestly, sensei. I don't have a girlfriend."

"Does this have anything to do with that bakery girl from down the road?" Makoto must have stiffened, because Nonaka-sensei sounded very pleased with himself as he continued. "You're always stopping off in there before reporting for your shift. Checking up on her, are you?"

"She's not there." Makoto said rigidly, picking up another book that should have been on the top shelf. "She's on vacation, according to her manager."

"'According to?'"

"With friends."

"Male friends?"

"How am I supposed to know?" He was irritated now. "I don't know her very well, she never mentioned the names of her friends to me."

"I seem to have touched a nerve." Nonaka-sensei laughed creakily, sounding even more pleased with himself. "Well, boy. Seems all you can do is wait and pounce the moment you manage to get her alone."

"Sensei." Makoto said, very tired all of a sudden. "I'm not you."

"Hah!" Nonaka-sensei guffawed. "That's true enough!"

"If you'll excuse me, I have to take these to the back room and catalogue them." Makoto picked up the books they were officially removing from the shelves for the moment, nodding to his boss. "Thanks for the advice, Nonaka-sensei."

"We both know you'd never jump anyone in the entirety of your life, boy." Nonaka-sensei was still chortling. "Just get your rear end in gear before you lose this girl of yours."

"All right."

"Now, if you don't catalogue those within the hour I'll be very cross with you."

"Yes, sir."

–

"Were you and Kyouya-senpai talking this afternoon, Tsubaki-chan?"

Tsubaki nodded, scrubbing her head with the towel in an effort to get her hair at least a little bit dryer. Haruhi was perched on the end of her bed, her legs crossed loosely on the coverlet. "Yeah. I actually had a semi-normal conversation this afternoon. Why?"

"Tamaki-senpai mentioned it. I was just wondering what it was you were talking about."

"Mostly how I might be making up my entire personality and using that to worm my way into the club's good graces." Tsubaki said thoughtfully. "Not in those exact terms, of course, but mostly about how I might be using my choice of reading material to make an image of myself."

Haruhi blinked. "That's…an interesting topic."

"I was the one who brought it up by listing my faults." Tsubaki shrugged. "Doesn't matter. It was interesting, even if I don't like him very much."

"Really?"

"His smile is fake." Tsubaki said, sinking down onto the mattress and rubbing her hair more briskly. "And I don't really get along with people on first meeting."

"We managed to get along."

"Well, that's because you're far more courteous than I could ever be and we had a basis for interaction." Tsubaki pointed out. "And plus you're just nice."

"Kyouya-senpai is nice too, once you get to know him." Haruhi sighed a little. "Of course, it takes a while to actually realize that. He doesn't seem to be very good at actually being friendly with people. Well, no, that's not true." She added, after a moment. "He's very good at it if there's something in it for him. If there's nothing…"

She trailed off, giving Tsubaki a very good idea as to how friendly Ootori Kyouya could be when there was nothing in it for him.

"So he's an egotist?" Tsubaki made a face. "I should have known."

"He likes to pretend he's an egotist." Haruhi corrected, smiling. "There's a difference."

"Indubitably." Tsubaki agreed, smiling back. "How far are you on your summer homework?"

"Farther than I thought I would be, considering where I am and who dragged me here." Haruhi sighed again. "I've almost managed to get one of the packet books done, which means I'm a third finished. If I just get two days to myself before heading out to Karuizawa, I'll get everything else done."

"You're going to Karuizawa?" Tsubaki asked, unwrapping her head for a moment. Her hair was no longer dripping, and was thus safe to rest against her clothes again.

"I _want_ to go to Karuizawa. I had a summer job there last year, and hopefully my dad will let me go back this year. I need the money, that's for sure."

"That sounds nice."

"Whatever you do, don't say that around the others." This time, Haruhi made a face. "If they hear you express anything like that they'll drag you up there without a thought to your little sister, and where will that leave you?"

"Imposing on my boss and without food money or any time to work on my summer homework at all." Tsubaki wrinkled her nose. "I think I might take your advice on that."

"Ooooi!" Someone pounded on the door of the room, and Tsubaki's wrinkled nose grew into a complete scowl. It sounded very much like Hikaru. "Haruhi, Shoumi, hurry up, how are we supposed to go star-gazing with you two locked up in that room?"

"We're going star-gazing?" Tsubaki repeated, feeling her eyebrows arch. Haruhi made an impatient noise.

"Apparently."

"What was that? I can't hear you!" Hikaru bellowed.

"We'll be out in a second!" Haruhi called back, without moving a single muscle. "I'm just getting my shoes on."

"You go ahead." Tsubaki rubbed her hair for a few seconds longer. "I want to make sure the narcissists and fashionistas are out of the building before I turn on the hair-dryer. If they hear me using it they just might break down the door."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Five minutes alone will get me through the next twenty-four hours."

"I know the feeling." Haruhi opened the door. "If you're sure…"

"Go on." Tsubaki flicked her hair towel at the other girl. "Go on, go. Get out. Hang out. Keep Suou-san from mistaking Mercury for a comet coming to destroy the earth, or a smudge on the telescope as a fleet of aliens coming to kill us all. Either way he'll probably proclaim it to the media and we'll all be mocked as international rumor-mongers for the rest of our lives. _If_ you don't get out there now."

Haruhi thought about this for a moment. She left the room a little faster than Tsubaki had expected her to.

As soon as she was gone, Tsubaki lowered her towel to her lap, sighing heavily. She couldn't tell Haruhi now that she really wanted to go home. Despite her complaining, she could tell easily that Haruhi was enjoying herself far more than she would admit. If she didn't go to Karuizawa sun-drenched and happy, Tsubaki would be very, very surprised.

Her hands twisted in the towel. She didn't know what she would be like when she finally went home. This would all feel like a dream, probably. She'd slip back into her old life like a key into a lock and probably forget almost every speck of this trip, regard it as a daydream she'd had over the course of a week.

Why had these people done this for her? She had only met them once before her kidnapping – she didn't really count the time when she'd been delivering the cakes, because she'd put Suou-san into a judo throw. She doubted that anyone was so generous as to take a person they'd just met onto an expensive trip like this without expecting some sort of reimbursement.

God. How could she pay them back for this? Whose idea had this been, anyway?

Certainly not Ootori-san, as an egotist. The twins were also a no – they were obviously too interested in messing around with peoples lives to do something so altruistic as invite someone onto a beach trip. Haruhi might have done it, but she didn't have the funds for it, and wouldn't have imposed on Nekozawa-san for so long anyway.

Mitsukuni-kun and Morinozuka-san? Debatable. But they had never mentioned it. Mitsukuni-kun would probably tell her if she asked, though.

Suou-san? Also debatable, though the fact that she had thrown him over her shoulder on first acquaintance probably indicated towards the negative. So, most likely Mitsukuni-kun with Morinozuka-san as an accomplice.

_How am I supposed to repay them?_ Tsubaki thought numbly. _I don't have any money to spare. I can't exactly ask, either, that would be rude. _Sometimes she hated how ingrained the polite side of her personality was – losing it would make a great many things far easier. _I'd probably offend them both if I even brought it up. A million thank-you's couldn't match it, either. What am I supposed to do?_

And Nekozawa-san, for letting her stay here. What could she do for either of them? _Well, Nekozawa-san's easy enough. I can find some occult books. I've seen the selection in the dark corner of the library, and I've read a few he doesn't have. That would be a good gift for someone like him._

Outside her room, the floorboard creaked.

Tsubaki whipped her head up, staring into the shadows outside the door. Haruhi had left it open. She must have imagined it. But, remembering exactly whose house she was inside right now made her second-guess herself. Without giving herself time to talk herself out of it, Tsubaki left her chair and hurried to the doorway, peering out into the suddenly dark hall.

"Is anyone there?"

Something whitish flashed from the end of the corridor, and Tsubaki hesitated before closing the door to her room and following it. "Nekozawa-san, is that you?"

No doubt about it. The tail of a cloak had just whipped around the corner. Tsubaki had to jog in order to keep up, going deeper and deeper into the house. She probably wouldn't be able to find her way out again, but she'd gone this far.

"Nekozawa-san, wait!"

She nearly crashed into him when she turned what must have been her twelfth corner. Tsubaki yelped and stumbled back, smacking against the wall as she put a hand to her heart. The cloaked figure recoiled a little, the face almost completely hidden.

"Why were you running?" Tsubaki asked, through her wheezes. "Did I startle you?"

On his hand, the white thing – something that looked vaguely like a cat – twisted nervously. "Good eventide, Shou-san. Beezlenef and I did not wish to disturb your contemplation."

_Beezlenef?_ Tsubaki blinked once or twice before studying the cat-thing on his hand again. _Must be the puppet Haruhi was talking about._ "You wouldn't have been. It wasn't really a serious contemplation."

The cat puppet wriggled a little, looking slightly hesitant somehow. "You looked quite serious."

"Oh, well. I was just…" Tsubaki sighed. "I was thinking about how I could repay you and the host club for bringing me here. That's all."

"Thoughts of repayment don't suit the dark hours." Nekozawa-san said, sounding uneasy. "It's not necessary."

"I think it is." Tsubaki said, smiling. "And you'll find I can be quite stubborn. I'd feel awful if I didn't do something to repay you."

No answer. Beezlenef squirmed.

"You're…" Nekozawa-san began. After a moment, Beezlenef stopped moving. "You can be quite strange."

"I think everyone has a tendency towards some sort of strangeness." Tsubaki said, steadfastly not looking at Beezlenef. If she said something stupid, she wouldn't ever forgive herself, most likely. "Some people could call them flaws, but I don't think so. It's some sort of uniqueness, that's all. Like my dual personality."

"Some could say devotion to the darkness was a flaw." Nekozawa-san said tentatively. Tsubaki nodded.

"Yes. Exactly. But I don't think it is. It's just a different way of looking at things."

"You understand the darkness at least a little." Tsubaki watched as the puppet twisted; the thing was obnoxiously good at revealing emotions. "Others don't."

"So?"

"How has your stay been?" He asked abruptly. Tsubaki blinked a little, taken aback by the change of subject.

"Appropriately gloomy, thank you." Tsubaki said. "I think I'll get a sunburn from all the sunlight I've been absorbing."

"The sun is dangerous." Nekozawa-san agreed. "Not only terrifying."

The thought struck her quite suddenly. "The others are on the roof. They're star-gazing, supposedly. I wasn't going to go up and join them, but you could go if you wanted. You probably know way more about the stars than I do."

"I…no." Beezlenef shrank back. "Those who embrace the darkness are not often welcomed, even in the best of times."

"So pretend it's the worst of times." She said. "Aren't you lonely on your own all the time?"

"No. The spirits of darkness accompany me. I would be intruding."

"Not if I invited you, you wouldn't be." On an impulse, Tsubaki reached forward and caught the hand that wasn't enmeshed inside Beezlenef. "We're friends, aren't we? Isn't that what friends do?"

His hand was very cold, and, out of reflex, he tried to pull away. Tsubaki tightened her grip.

"Please?" When she received no answer, she shook her head. "You wouldn't have to talk to anyone if you didn't want to. You could just look at the stars for a few minutes and go back inside. But please come." She lowered her voice. "I actually don't think I could tolerate so much insanity on my own."

"Fujioka-san is there." He said reluctantly. "As are the others."

"Haruhi will have her hands full with the twins and Suou-san together." Tsubaki pointed out. "Please come. I would feel better if you did."

There was a long silence.

"You are very strange." He said finally. Tsubaki released his hand.

"Other people have told me that before." She laughed. "And besides, I'm kind of lost, so I would be asking you for help to the roof anyway. Why go for a walk on your own when you can just sit on the roof and look at the stars? Besides," she added, with a sly grin, "Suou-san will probably start up a scary story competition. And for some reason, I think you'd be good at that."

Under the hood, something twitched. Tsubaki thought that it was a smile.

–

It was a strange power, this girl had. That both of them had, considering what he knew about Fujioka-san's situation.

No one had told him, of course. But it hadn't taken a genius to figure out that the year before, when the club had been staying at this beach house for the first time, Fujioka-san had been wearing a pink dress for the majority of the time. If he hadn't heard the twins discussing Fujioka-san, including some fairly effeminate pronouns, he would have been a little concerned about Fujioka-san's tendencies. But, as it happened, he _had_ heard the twins referring to Fujioka-san as "she" and "her," and simply hadn't bothered telling anyone that he knew. After all, Fujioka-san's decision to live as a male was her own, and it was clear from how the twins had been discussing it that it was a secret. He wouldn't betray secrets.

But it was clear that both of these girls – both of them lower middle class, and thus growing up far differently than anyone else in the house – had a strange tendency to accept people.

Umehito wondered if it was a product of their upbringing. After all, growing up in situations where monetary and societal value factored very little into any given relationship had probably allowed them interaction with far different spheres of society than he and the host club had. After all, the commoners had much more to deal with than society balls and school – they interacted daily with people they had never met before, had to deal with creatures such as…well, he wasn't quite sure, but he was certain they were grievous.

And yet both of these girls had managed to survive to the age of sixteen and still be able to treat others with widely spread acceptance.

There was no alternative. They both had to be witches, or at least have some experience of being different at some point in their difficult lives. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to accept others as they seemed to do so.

Or perhaps it was a widely taught trait among the lower classes. Either way, Umehito had no way of knowing for sure.

Across the roof, Fujioka-san and Shou-san had their heads together over one of the telescopes the twins had brought, talking about constellations they could see. The twins themselves were huddled over the second telescope, while Suou-kun, Ootori-kun, Haninozuka-san, and Morinozuka-san were leaning against the wall, simply watching. Suou-kun looked almost desperate to get at the telescopes, but Ootori-kun was crushing his foot, and he couldn't move more than an inch before an expression of terrible agony flitted across his face. Umehito made no comment. It was clear that Ootori-kun was observing the others as much as he himself was, and he had no intention of getting in the way.

"Nekozawa-san!"

Umehito jumped. Shou-san was waving from by her telescope, looking a little worried.

"I've called your name five times, are you all right?"

"Communing with the shadows." He said, after a moment. Suou-kun cowered.

"Well, we've found Neptune, but the twins don't believe us. Come see."

"It's not Neptune." Hikaru-kun snapped, looking no less irritated. "It's just a star, we've told you, Shoumi. How many times have you been star-gazing, anyway?"

"Twice with telescopes." Shou-san flared. "I do it all the time with the naked eye. And I'm telling you that's Neptune. Nekozawa-san, help me! You know about the stars from your spells, right? Isn't that Neptune?"

"Nekozawa-senpai, what are you doing up here?" Kaoru-kun asked, a little nervously. "We thought you were downstairs."

"I invited him." Shou-san snapped, looking quite fierce. "I hope there isn't a problem with that."

The expression on her face said that there had better not be. After a moment, she turned around again. "Nekozawa-san, please come look."

After a moment of studying the little blue spot in the viewer of the telescope, Umehito confirmed that it was, indeed, Neptune, which was a good omen for the spell he intended to complete that night, and retreated back to the shadows of the doorway. After a moment, Shou-san and Fujioka-san moved away from their telescope, talking and laughing, and Haninozuka-san darted out to join them, his rabbit's ears bouncing as he ran. He leapt onto Shou-san's back, nearly knocking her off the edge of the roof, but she caught her balance and started laughing instead. Suou-kun and Morinozuka-san moved to take over the telescope the girls had left, leaving Ootori-kun alone against the wall. This let Umehito relax a little. After all, Ootori Kyouya was another being of the night, though he could tolerate the reprehensible daylight hours.

"They are quite special, are they not?" Umehito said quietly, Beezlenef wriggling at the words. Ootori-kun glanced at him, the lenses of his glasses hiding his eyes, before nodding.

"I believe I would have to agree."

"Is it a trait of all commoners?" He asked curiously. _If anyone knows, it'll be Ootori-kun._ "To be so accepting of others."

"My research has indicated that it is not." Ootori-kun pushed his glasses up his nose as he watched the group. Suou-kun was having a spirited argument with Hikaru-kun over the telescope. "We have simply been remarkably lucky."

Umehito considered this, turning to watch as well. Fujioka-san had stepped into the breach, her hands held out to keep the two boys apart. At the edge of the wall, Shou-san and Kaoru-kun were talking quietly; Haninozuka-san, who had slid off Shou-san's back, was bouncing on the balls of his feet as he took over the abandoned telescope, Morinozuka-san holding the rabbit for him.

"They seem to have a strange ability to grow close to others in the least possible amount of time." Umehito commented. "How long did it take for Fujioka-san to grow used to the ways of the club? She seems to be very precious to all of you."

Ootori-kun gave him a sharp look. Umehito offered no other information.

"Ah, of course. Last year." He thought about this for a moment. "And you have told no one?"

"The darkness frowns upon the revelation of secrets that its disciples are supposed to be unaware of." Umehito said primly.

"I see." He turned to watch the rest of the group again. "Not very long."

"And how long, do you think, until Shou-san acclimates?" Umehito pressed.

"Not very long. Her personality seems to be almost on par with Haruhi's more…unsettling traits, though they are almost complete opposites in other ways."

"Unsettling traits?"

"An almost unnatural level of perception and ability to accept the unusual." He gave Umehito a level look. "As I'm sure you've noticed, Nekozawa-senpai."

Beezlenef nodded. Ootori-kun nodded back.

"Of course, Shou seems to be far more aware of the affect she has on other people and even goes so far as to attempt to manipulate that affect." Ootori-kun said, almost thoughtfully. "As opposed to Haruhi, who has next to no idea how her words and deeds affect others and seems to be under the impression that she is completely sexless."

"An interesting predicament."

"And one that has given some of us a great deal of frustration."

_Is that the way of it. _Umehito thought quietly. Beezlenef rubbed his paws together over this revelation from Ootori-kun – though Umehito didn't doubt he had thought quite carefully about those words before actually speaking them.

"If I might ask, who in particular does it frustrate?" He asked, very carefully. Ootori-kun looked quite satisfied with this question.

"Tamaki and Hikaru, it seems."

Umehito thought about this for a moment. "May the darkness help them."

Ootori-kun laughed. "I think both of them would welcome it."

"Nekozawa-san!" Shou-san said, waving from the telescopes again. "Ootori-san! Come and look! We found a comet!"

"It's not another crushed mosquito, is it, Tamaki?" Ootori-kun said. He didn't look as exasperated as he sounded, however, and Beezlenef mimed a small chuckle.

"I'll have you know, it's not a crushed mosquito, because _I_ found it this time, no matter what Tamaki-senpai might say." Haruhi said, even more exasperatedly. "And I've checked the lens twice, so you don't have to, Kyouya-senpai."

"Wouldn't dream of it." He replied easily, as Shou-san made a frustrated noise.

"Of course. We all believe you."

"Your faith in me is touching, truly."

Shou-san ignored him. "Nekozawa-san, come on! Before Suou-san takes it over and moves the telescope! We'd never find the comet again if he did that."

"Wa, Shou-hime, how could you think I would do such a thing!"

"Because you breathe, Tono."

"You ungrateful – Hikaru, Kaoru! Return Haruhi to me!"

"Nooooo!"

"Let me go!"

Beezlenef enjoyed looking at the comet.

* * *

_I really actually like Nekozawa-senpai perspectives. Maybe I should write more of them. Thoughts?_

__

-san: As I said in the previous chapter, -san does not mean particularly anything (in relation to Mr. or Ms., anyway, despite what English translations of it tells you) but shows the fact that you have either just met the person you are speaking to or have respect for them as an equal. If you don't use any sort of appelation (-san, -kun, -chan, etc) that indicates that you're quite close OR that you have no caring for social stuff. Really.

-kun: a term used typically by girls to boys, though it can be used in relation to girls on some occasions (e.g. Shigure to Tohru in Fruits Basket.) Usually for boys from middle school to college age, from the same social level or down.

-chan: a term used between close friends, and to lower status people (younger sisters, like Yumi-chan, are common) and to make things seem cuter or more childlike.

Tono: the twins' nickname for Tamaki, it means 'lord.' Sort of like a feudal lord, like they compare him to in the episode "The Door the Twins Opened."

-senpai: used to address senior members of an institutionalized organization, such as a school or a company.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. That honor belongs to Bisco Hatori-sama, and Bones.**

**Tsubaki has a bit of a meltdown. I guess it's just channeling the angst I'm writing right now. Sorry if it's out of the blue.**

**And sorry for taking so long to post this; Life Problems caught up with me. I should have the next chapter up soon. XD**

**

* * *

****Chapter Seven**

"_Do you think you can find out the answer to it?" said the March Hare.  
_"_Exactly so," said Alice.  
_"_Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.  
- _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

She dreamed about rock climbing.

Tsubaki hadn't really gone rock climbing in years before she'd climbed down the cliff to the beach. She'd forgotten how good it could feel, to just have yourself and a rock and to push yourself the farthest you could ever go. When her parents had been home, she and her mother had gone to a rock climbing gym every Sunday, and climbed up and down for over an hour; every summer since Tsubaki was ten, she, her mother, and her father (along with Yumi, once she had been born) had traveled to a mountain with cliffs sheer enough for climbing.

She didn't recognize where she was climbing now. It was a combination of the Grand Canyon and the biggest pebble in the world: Mount Augustus, in western Australia. She wore no ropes, and didn't have gloves or even chalk; she was climbing with nothing but her hands and bare feet, and she was at least a mile above the ground.

At least, it looked like a mile.

Tsubaki reached up to the next handhold, stretching as far as she could go. Her arms and legs ached from the strain; she could feel the rock crumbling under her fingers, but she had to keep climbing; if she didn't, it was guaranteed she was going to fall.

_God, I feel stupid._ Tsubaki gripped the next rock, heaving herself up. _What a weird dream._

Her fingers found the top of the cliff, and Tsubaki pulled herself over the edge, panting. The grit felt strangely soft under her cheek.

_What the…?_

It was a garden. Blossoms all the colors of the rainbow bloomed, each of them the size of her head, perfuming the air; the grass was bright green; trees drooped over everything, shielding it from the sun. It was a paradise, and Tsubaki knew right away that there was something wrong with it. She didn't know how, or why, but she just knew – something was very strange about that garden.

But her feet took her there anyway.

As she walked, the vegetation grew thicker; flowers alternated between light orange, light green (which she didn't understand at all), light blue, dark plum, crimson, pink, and indigo. They also grew smaller, until finally they were the same size as just opening rose buds. Tsubaki picked one of each color as she walked along, and a few more flowers – a thorny bush held a luminous yellow rose; in the grass at her feet nestled a tiny bundle of Queen Anne's lace; a little sunflower, which was a deep, rich golden brown, like just-made sugar cookies; a brilliantly blue Scarlet Pimpernel; and a Calla Lily – joined the strangely shaped rainbow of flowers in her hands already. Once they were all picked, she swung them at her side, making her way barefoot through the garden, feeling the weirdness inch up notch by notch.

Finally, she reached the center of the garden – a wide blank space with a bench in the middle. Tsubaki set her flowers on the bench, sitting down and smoothing her dress – still white, despite her climb, and only held on her by flimsy straps over her shoulders – over her knees. At her feet were pebbles, arranged into a sentence:

_The heart was made to be broken._

"Oscar Wilde." Tsubaki said, studying the words.

The garden disappeared in an aching maw, which opened up the earth with a tooth-splitting snap – Tsubaki screamed, pressing the flowers to her chest, but one by one they slipped through her fingers, spiraling away into the pit like brightly colored teardrops. And then it swallowed her too.

Then there was the jangling of her cell phone, and Tsubaki nearly screamed as she bolted up off of the blankets. After the twins had returned her cell phone, she'd unplugged the wall phone (wary of any phone was plugged into the wall; she'd been initiated in certain paranoid beliefs by her father, who had adopted them from her grandfather, who had been under the firm belief that the government use corded phones to spy on the conversations of the people) and retreated firmly to using only her cell phone. At least that way the members of the host club couldn't pick up another phone and eavesdrop on her conversations.

Tsubaki stared at her cell phone for a moment, watching it buzz against the bedside table, before rolling over and snagging it, not really wanting to talk to anyone at the moment. And nobody she knew would ever call her past midnight.

_Restricted Number_. The message blared at her from the middle of the screen, too bright against her eyes, and with a muffled groan, Tsubaki shoved the thing under her pillow and hid her face against the mattress, waiting for it to quit vibrating. She'd never had a _Restricted Number_ call that didn't turn out to be frustrating in some way or another.

Finally, it trilled again, and Tsubaki lifted the phone and pressed it against her ear to listen to the voice message. She wasn't about to call them back, not at two A.M.

"_First unheard message_:

"Tsubaki?" That was Megumi, husky as always. "You haven't been returning my emails, and I was just wondering if you were okay. Call me back, all right?"

"_Second unheard message_:

"Baki-Maki, it's Rin." Tsubaki rolled over onto her back, wondering: _How the hell did Rin get my personal cell number? Marie-san… _"I just wanted to tell you that you suck for staying away this long. Lemon-bar lady was righteously angry today because she couldn't harp on you for the rind issue. She picked on me instead. You owe me when you get back, little girl. You _owe me_."

_Ooh, I'm so scared_.

"_Third unheard message_:

"Tsubaki-chan, it's your aunt Satsuki."

Tsubaki froze. Stared at the ceiling without seeing it. She hadn't heard that voice in years before three months ago. Hadn't heard that voice in anything other than complaint, remonstration, and insults. Had gone out of her way to prevent that voice, and the person it belonged to, was out of her life as much as possible.

"I dropped by your apartment today, and no one was there," Satsuki continued, and despite the whiny nasal tone it took sometimes, now it was just normal sounding; too much like her mother's voice for Tsubaki to force herself to hang up. "And when I went to your work – do you really work at a bakery, Tsubaki-chan? – I was told you were out with friends. With _friends_? Tsubaki-chan. I told you that you're too young to be taking on this responsibility. And of course I was right. What responsible adult leaves a four-year-old to take care of herself? Especially when that four-year-old is as…well, frankly, as odd as Yumi-chan. I didn't see her, and your coworker assured me that she was in good hands, but how could they be good hands if they're not even family? I hope that she wasn't hinting that Yumi was staying with that…that Frenchwoman. You know how I feel about your job, Tsubaki-chan, and the fact that you went off and just abandoned your sister like that… I am _very_ disappointed in you. I expect you both to come and stay with myself and my family once you return from whatever little self-absorbed jaunt you're on. Do you understand me?"

_Beeeeeep_. "_No unheard messages_."

Tsubaki lowered her phone to her side, dreamily, barely aware that she had hung up. She stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours. She wasn't even crying; she was simply in shock. She couldn't believe what she had just heard.

Then, with a heavy breath, she rolled over, swung out of bed, grabbed the _yukata_ that had been left for her to use, and left the bedroom.

The beach-house was shockingly quiet. None of them had seen Nekozawa-san since the astronomy lesson the night before last, and Tsubaki wasn't certain if that was a good thing or a bad thing; at least, no one else seemed to be bothered by it. Typically, after midnight, people began to go to bed. Haruhi always retreated back to her bedroom by eleven, to work on homework for a while, and Tsubaki never stayed without Haruhi there. She offered a shield between Tsubaki and Suou-san and the twins, who were more than overwhelming when they were all three together.

She'd lied a little to Kaoru in the tunnels. And a little to Ootori-san on the beach. It wasn't just that she hid behind her politeness. She had nothing _but_ her politeness. She was defensive and caustic under the good manners that had been drilled into her since birth because she didn't have anything underneath that. She was a hollow shell. A nothing. A non-existence.

_I shouldn't have stayed_. She walked faster, wondering how long it would take her to need to run. She wasn't going to climb down the cliff this evening – that had been a burst of adrenaline that she'd regretted right after she'd done it – but she needed to run, and if that meant leaving the beach-house, then she was damn well going to leave the beach-house. _I can't stay here. I can't stay where everything is so…_

Pure. That was it, wasn't it? That was what bothered her about the host club. They were all so pure. When they cared about someone, they _showed _it. Ostentatiously, frustratingly, flamboyantly, annoyingly, and sometimes very subtly, almost too subtly for her to see: but they _showed it_. They were all like children in that way. When they loved someone, when they cared for them, they always showed it. They ran to that person, delighted in that person, took prodigious good care of that person. Haruhi was a case in point. Tsubaki doubted that Haruhi knew half of what the host club had done for her, in little ways, or noticed it.

Tsubaki wasn't like that. She couldn't look at someone – at anyone other than Yumi, anyone other than her precocious darling little sister – and simply care for them. Or she hadn't been able to in a long time. It had been Megumi who had introduced her to Riki, to Yoko-senpai, to everyone else she knew in school. Megumi had been her friend, the only person she'd really counted as a friend. And then Megumi had left, and then her parents, and there had been no reason for her to participate in a social life any longer. She talked to Rin because Rin spoke to her; she talked to Marie-san and cared about Marie-san, but she was her boss, not her friend.

_I don't remember how to be a friend to anybody_.

The sea wind was cold and sharp as she left the courtyard, dropped down onto one of the benches on the cliff-side, and she closed her eyes and breathed it in. _And they helped me forget that for a little while. And I'll always value them for that. But I can't…I can't stay here_.

That was what they'd done, wasn't it? They had helped her forget everything. And it had been good to forget, for a few days at least. But all her agonies over the last few months, her stupid pride, her stubbornness – once those had been stripped away from her she had nothing. Nothing that was hers. She'd even quit photography. She found no pleasure in it anymore. _Is that normal for anybody?_ She had loved photography before her parents had left. She had been planning to do an internship at Katan Wish during college. And now she couldn't even imagine herself back then, what had driven her towards that.

That truth was what had scared her so badly that first night, when it had been her birthday and they'd had their chefs or whatever make a dinner for her. That was what had driven her to tears, forced her to run outside, to take refuge in the ocean. That was what had made her hide. The fear. The fear that they would figure it out, figure out that she was…a nobody.

_You're a weak, stupid, useless nothing, Shou Tsubaki,_ said a stern, not unkind voice in her mind,_ and it's time that you finally faced that fact_.

So what that she could speak English? So what that she liked reading? (Or used to, and was simply going through the motions for it now.) So what that her heart fluttered like a bird around these boys, around Tousaku-kun? Did she even really care for him?

_Yes_. She seized on that, on the instinctual rejection of the thought that she only pretended to like him to feel human. _Yes_. _I like him_.

But how much? Was she just clinging to him because he was a remnant of her life that she could understand? Because he was a piece of her memory from when she'd been normal? From when she'd had friends? From when she'd never worried about her parents no longer being there? From when, from when. She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes for a moment. _The heart was made to be broken_. Was that was this was? Was her heart broken? Could it be broken by her parents, not by a lover? Could it be broken by her family?

"Tsubaki-chan?"

She jumped so badly that she nearly fell off her own feet, and dabbed at her eyes, wondering when she had started crying. She didn't remember. She knew the warmth streaking down her cheeks were tears, and that she could suddenly barely see through the blur, but she hadn't noticed it until she'd noticed that someone else was out here.

Mitsukuni-kun paused next to her, for once sans both Usa-chan and Morinozuka-san. She couldn't look at him. He reminded her so much of Yumi sometimes, so much of the one person she still felt safe caring about, that she couldn't breathe. _Why him?_ Finally, she blinked until she could see his face, and faked a smile.

"Mitsukuni-kun." Her voice broke, and she could only hope he hadn't noticed. "What are you doing out here?"

"Walking." He clasped his hands behind his back and rocked back and forth on his feet, looking almost thoughtful. "I couldn't sleep. What are you doing out here?"

"I was just…" She couldn't think of anything to say. "I couldn't sleep either, I guess."

She thought, for a second, that he was going to talk. Instead, Mitsukuni-kun sat down on the bench next to her (he had to scrabble a little, but he made it) and stared out at the ocean, where the moon was reflected in the heavy water. It was comforting, kind of, to have him sitting there, someone who was so much like Yumi, but at the same time it was unnerving. She wasn't sure she wanted anyone to talk to her. To even come near her anymore.

"We're going back to Tokyo tomorrow." He said, and Tsubaki blinked. "We can't stay any longer. Father will be cross. And I might miss a class."

Father. None of them had ever really mentioned family. She would have guessed Mitsukuni-kun would have called his father 'Papa', considering how he referred to anyone else. He wasn't really acting like himself.

"Mitsukuni-kun?" Suddenly the word tasted strange in her mouth. Nobody else called him that. Only Morinozuka-san, and they'd known each other for years. Tsubaki cleared her throat. "Um…what are you studying?"

"Technology." He looked very adult sitting there, scarily so, and she had to fight the urge to run. "Do you know what you want to study, Tsubaki-chan?"

"Photography." The word echoed hollowly. "Or I used to want to. Now…" She laughed. "I don't know. Doesn't that sound stupid?"

"No."

Tsubaki took a breath, and stood, clenching her fingers into her robe. "I'm going back inside. Good night, Mitsu – Hani-kun." Her tongue stumbled over the new name, but she forced it out her mouth nonetheless. "See you in the morning."

She was almost to the door when she heard him call her name, and paused with her hand on the knob. She couldn't speak.

"Can you come to the courtyard tomorrow morning? Maybe at dawn? You don't have to, but…" He shrugged a little. "It might make you feel a little better." Long pause. "And I won't tell anyone you were crying if you don't want me to, okay?"

She would have said something, but words – _What responsible adult leaves a four-year-old to take care of herself? _and _You're a weak, stupid, useless nothing, Shou Tsubaki – _flashed through her mind, and suddenly it was all she could do to keep from sobbing. Tsubaki bolted through the gap, and shut the door behind her.

* * *

"Kyou-chan."

Ootori Kyouya wasn't stupid enough to think that he'd imagined the little hiss. Tamaki had finally gone to bed at about midnight, his attempts to draw Kyouya into conversation completely frustrated, and he had been the last awake of the host club. That is, except for Kyouya himself, who had been working on the computer and was used to staying up until four in the morning anyway.

It was about three-thirty now, and he hadn't heard a single sound throughout the entirety of the house (other than Nekozawa-senpai extending his silent greetings about midnight-forty) for hours. He didn't jump, though; he just glanced up, wondering what Hani-senpai was doing wandering the corridors at this hour when he was always the first club member to wake in the mornings.

"Hani-senpai." Kyouya studied Hani-senpai's face for a moment, and then saved his program. There were multiple indicators of deep thought on that childish face. "I thought everyone was in bed. "

"I heard someone wandering around the house." Hani-senpai shrugged, took the chair opposite Kyouya, and Kyouya pressed the screen of his laptop down for a moment, wondering what was going on here. "I couldn't sleep, anyways."

He said nothing for a long moment. Kyouya turned back to his computer. It would take a while for whatever was going on to get out. He knew Hani-senpai well enough to know that even before the host club, Hani-senpai had always weighed every single word before speaking it. At least, on important issues.

"Kyou-chan." Hani-senpai said again. Kyouya didn't look up this time. "If you knew someone was sad, but you didn't know why, what would you do?"

"Coming to me for emotional advice isn't exactly the best choice. Respectfully," Kyouya added, his mind already racing forward through the suppositions. The only person he knew was openly upset about anything was Shou. What had happened for Hani-senpai – who was probably one of the most perceptive members of their little group, nearly as good as Haruhi in some ways, and better than her in others – to seek advice?

"I've thought about it." Hani-senpai continued. "And the only thing I can really do is ask, right?" He hugged himself, and then looked surprised when he couldn't cuddle the rabbit closer against himself. He'd left upstairs. "But…I can't ask. They wouldn't explain it."

"Ah." Kyouya pulled up the file of notes he had on Shou, scanning it absently. He'd fleshed it out since that simple experiment in the garden of Ouran, worked on it under her very nose, but still hadn't learned much more than he'd already suspected. (Or known.) "Would it be correct to assume that you're talking about Shou?"

"Mm." He swung his legs back and forth. "Remember, Kyou-chan, when I said she was sad? At the school? I thought…" Hani-senpai shrugged. "I thought that might have been it, but it wasn't. She's angry, too. I don't think she knows how angry. And she's scared."

"Did she inform you of this?"

"No. I guessed. It wasn't that hard. But I thought, because she wouldn't explain, I could ask you. Because…just because." He shrugged again. "You know things, I guess."

"I might." Kyouya didn't elaborate. "But why the interest, Hani-senpai? Did something happen?"

"It kind of reminds me from before the host club. When we were all sad and alone. Tama-chan helped us, and I think it's time that we help someone else."

Hani-senpai hopped down off his chair without elaborating, and left the room. A few minutes later a second floor door closed, and Kyouya took his glasses off for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose and surreptitiously rubbing his eyes at the same time. For some reason he was suddenly as tired as if he'd hashed out a complicated deal with a hacker or one of his father's business associates or even someone attempting to blackmail the host club (though most incidents of that were ridiculously easy to handle).

Ootori Kyouya rarely if ever felt anything bearing any sort of similarity to guilt. It was something that an Ootori couldn't afford to feel, couldn't ever afford to feel, but now, for some reason, there was the barest hint of it in him when he thought over what had just happened. That and frustration that he'd managed to misjudge someone so thoroughly. He had seen no hint of what Hani-senpai was putting forward as the truth; no sadness, no anger, no fear. But Hani-senpai would have never gone to another person with this information without having some sort of proof; he was too intelligent to do that.

Then again, Hani-senpai had experience with hiding himself under a mask. Perhaps even more than Kyouya, who had simply not cared about his true self enough to care about hiding it. Hani-senpai had known just who he was, and had known that it had unnerved his father and his family, and had gone out of his way to hide it, and that might have been the experience that Kyouya lacked that allowed him to see through Shou's lies. Or omissions. Whichever term was less tactful.

Kyouya opened his eyes and slid his glasses back onto his nose. He had been working on something for the host club, but that had been something three weeks in advance. He had time to go on a far more detailed crawl through Shou's electronic past before morning.

* * *

Three days after her parents had gone off to Baghdad, her aunt had offered her home to Tsubaki and Yumi. They had both, emphatically, refused. Satsuki was so different from the mother that Tsubaki remembered. She had cousins – many cousins – from that part of the family.

Her mother's sister was everything her mother was not. She had gone to school at the Japanese Women's University and achieved two degrees – home economics, and Mrs. It was her mother's private joke; that some women only went to college to snag themselves husbands. So, a degree in becoming a Mrs.

Satsuki had only been a sophomore in college when she'd become engaged to Takashima Masao, who was possibly the most boring individual that Tsubaki had ever met. And they had promptly gone on to have six children. The only family member that any of them had been able to understand had been Kanon, Tsubaki's cousin (Tsubaki was the younger, by a year) who went to a prestigious private school on the other side of the district.

It would have been worth staying with Satsuki, just to spend time with her favorite cousin, but the rest of it far outweighed the potential of hanging out with Kanon. Why, now that everything was so difficult, was she absolutely refusing to think about staying with Aunt Satsuki? Her pride? (_She sneers about everything we do, thinks photography's a waste of time_.) Her stubbornness? (_She calls Yumi stupid and me fat behind Mom's back_.) Her ever dwindling wish that her parents would come back soon? (_Please, please, please, let them be safe_.) The fact that Yumi despised her, with the clear cold dislike of a child? (_I despise her_.)

She could still picture her aunt's face, that day she'd shown up on the doorstep of the apartment, clearly disdainful of everything inside: the photographs on the walls, the bookshelf in the corner. _You'll have to transfer schools, of course, both of you_. _And I already have an idea for your college curriculum_. _And I might be able to even plan an _omiai_ – you don't have a boyfriend already, do you?_

_She wants to control everything_, Tsubaki thought, and viciously kicked the nearest wall.

For her fifteenth birthday, her parents had given her a fabulous camera – a Nikon D40, her first real camera, instead of a dorky little digital one that most people bought. Her aunt hadn't given her anything. When Tsubaki had brought it along to show Kanon, on a trip to Satsuki's house, her aunt had sneered at it and called photography a worthless profession, in front of both of her parents. Tsubaki hadn't said a word, but she hadn't complained when they'd left soon afterwards. After all, it wasn't like Satsuki would have retracted the statement.

She hadn't been able to get back to sleep after her midnight trek, and she had been waiting in the courtyard for the sun to rise. The flowers in the garden reminded her vaguely of the dream she'd had, before her aunt had called her (_why the hell was she calling me at two in the morning?_) and she struggled to recall the rest of it. She thought Oscar Wilde had something to do with it, a quote by Oscar Wilde: _The heart was made to be broken_. But she couldn't remember the rest of it.

Dawn was turning the horizon pink, and Tsubaki frowned and closed her eyes to shut it out. She'd packed everything the night before, including the clothes the twins had given her (she had tried politely refusing them, and then rudely refusing them, and then had nearly given in to the temptation to chuck Hikaru off a cliff, but she'd been forced into taking them anyway). She wondered if she was coming away from the freaking beach-house resort with more than she'd brought to it, and then discounted the idea. If anything, she was leaving with less.

It was _easy_ here, she knew that. It was so easy that she didn't have to go to work. She didn't have to worry about Yumi, at least, not until now. She didn't have to work on homework, didn't have to work on her grades, on finding her parents. She didn't have to do anything, and that was what had scared her so badly. Because once she didn't have anything to do, she had nothing to her at all.

Her eyes were sore, and her nose felt like it had been stuffed full of cotton, but she'd stopped crying about three minutes after she'd locked herself in her borrowed bedroom again. She'd gone through the messages again, making a mental note to call Megumi, and then picked apart every word of the message that Satsuki-oba-san had left and seen part of the sense in it. The fear of it had been replaced with surprise, replaced with disgust, replaced with cold, hard fury, at herself and at Satsuki. Hadn't Rin – _even Rin_ – remarked that it would be easier on her to just stay with her aunt, no matter how much she hated her?

_But then I won't have as much to do and I won't be an existence._

And that was selfish, selfish, selfish. She dug her fingers into grass and tore it up. She needed to worry about Yumi, not herself. She needed Yumi taken care of. And if that meant going to stay with Satsuki-oba-san, then she damn well was going to stay with Satsuki.

"Tsubaki-chan."

It was Hani-kun again. Tsubaki drew a deep breath through her nose and said nothing. She shouldn't have come down here, but she hadn't been able to resist. _It might make you feel a bit better_, he'd said, and in that instant he'd looked so much not like Yumi, so much more like the adult he was, that it had scared her into coming.

He was wearing the white _gi_ that he used to practice in, and this time he was flanked by both stuffed rabbit and Morinozuka-san. Tsubaki nodded a bit stiffly at them, and stood, leaving her arms uselessly by her sides. She hadn't bothered to put on shoes (there was nothing spiny around here for her to step on) but she'd at least changed her shirt. The pajama pants were easy enough to move in.

Morinozuka-san nodded back, and shifted his grip on the _shinai_ he was carrying. Tsubaki had been able to work out both of their routines by now; Hani-kun and Morinozuka-san would spar for a little while, and then they would break apart for Hani-kun to practice individual _kata_ and Morinozuka-san to work on _kendo_. But now he had two _shinai_ with him, and she puzzled over that. Was Hani-kun going to practice too?

Hani-kun smiled happily when she flicked a glance at him, all child again. "Good morning, Tsubaki-chan! How are you feeling?"

"Fine." It was a lie. She felt like crap and her voice was rough like sandpaper. "Good morning."

He was only a few inches shorter than her, she realized, looking at him. She was about Haruhi's height, maybe even half an inch or so shorter. She hated it, but it was true; she wanted to be tall like her mother but she'd somehow inherited her father's obnoxious shortness gene. But it put her almost eye to eye with Hani-kun, and that was suddenly odd.

"I talked to Takashi," Hani-kun said, cuddling Usa-chan a little. "And he's agreed to teach you _kendo_ until you feel better."

_Ken – what?_ Tsubaki gaped at him. She couldn't speak. _What does he mean, _kendo_?_

"Tsubaki-chan, you're working too hard." Hani-kun said, and suddenly she wanted to shrivel up and die. "You need something as an outlet. And everybody else has one – Haru-chan studies, and Hika-chan and Kao-chan play, and Kyou-chan has his computer and Tama-chan has the host club. Me and Takashi, we have martial arts, but you don't have anything." _Anymore_. The word poisoned the air. "And it's fun. Right, Takashi?"

"Aah."

This wasn't what she'd bargained on. She didn't want to learn kendo. Or talk to either of them for any longer, for that matter. Even if they were trying to help. "No, really, that's not –"

"You don't want to learn?" His eyes shimmered, and Tsubaki gritted her teeth. _No. Not the deer-in-the-headlights eyes_. "Why not? Tsubaki-chan!"

"I don't' want to – I don't want to impose –"

"You wouldn't be imposing, right, Takashi? We'd be helping you out! You can't tear up grass all day, and we have a plane to get on and everything. There isn't any grass there, and I don't think Tama-chan would be happy if you started tearing up the seat cushions."

Frankly, whether or not 'Tama-chan' would or wouldn't be happy about her destroying seat cushions was irrelevant. He had more money that God. He could afford to replace a few seat cushions. Who knew – he might even think of it as fun, and tear up a few himself just to see the fluff fly. But the thought of trying to bite through her own tongue rather than scream with rage was not an appealing one; Tsubaki bit her lip to keep the swearwords in her mouth. If she kept saying no, she'd hurt Hani-kun's feelings and probably doom Suou-san's seat cushions. If she said yes, she'd sacrifice her own principles and only _possibly_ dooming Suou-san's seat cushions. And if she walked away, Hani-kun would most likely follow her.

Hani-kun beamed at her – _silence isn't agreement!_ – and turned to Morinozuka-san, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I can be referee!"

"I don't really think –" Tsubaki began, but then someone had slapped the _shinai _in her hands, and the expectations of the wooden sword pressed against her shoulders. She stood up straighter, holding the thing like she had seen the _kendo _team at school do. _Now if I could only beat a tree with this – preferably until it broke – then I would be fine_.

"I've never done this before." It was stupid, but it was out of her mouth before she realized it. Morinozuka-san looked at her for a moment, and she suddenly felt dwarfed.

"It's easy," he said, the first thing he'd said other than _Aah_ that she could remember. It shocked her enough to take position in front of him, wondering if she was going to kill herself doing this.

"And –" Hani-kun's hand seemed to remain in the air for an immeasurably long time. Then it crashed downwards. "GO!"

She'd watched the _kendo _club at her middle school. Tousaku-kun had been on it, and that had been her only real reasoning. But she'd never done anything other than that. She'd never held a _shinai_, never tried on the armor, never even really looked at the rules. She had no idea how many of them she was breaking, standing out here barefoot in her pajamas, with this sword in her hands, and wanting to strake something, to hurt someone, to get some of this pure, unadulterated _rage_ out of her system. And for once, she didn't care.

Tsubaki lunged out, trying to hit this person standing in front of her, as hard as she possibly could – because the person had become a target, and her mind had gone utterly blank. But the bamboo slats of the _shinai_ only sliced through the air, not hitting anything, and when the tip hit the ground it sent vibrations up her arms that were almost painful.

_The bastard dodged_!

Again the wild charge, the desperate need to feel the blade strike – and nothing. The tip of it dug into the dirt, and when Tsubaki pulled it up again clods sprayed like bullets. She stopped rushing, glared at him, seeing red. Morinozuka was just standing there. He hadn't even moved his _shinai _out of the guard position.

"How is this supposed to help me?"

He said nothing, and simply waited. That was enough. Tsubaki screamed through gritted teeth and lashed out again, with a side swipe this time, and she saw that she was far too slow. Before she'd even started to move he'd stepped sideways, out of range, without even bothering to use his _shinai _to block. She couldn't keep up with him, not when she was so much shorter than she was, and far, far less practiced.

_Then I have to go faster_. She'd never had to try, but she had reason now. Tsubaki took a breath, waited for a moment, grabbing that endless torrent of wrath and channeling it, wondering if it would do anything and remembering how much faster she'd always managed to get when she'd used her anger in the jujitsu that Megumi had taught her. And then she snapped the _shinai_ out, changing direction at the last second, a feint from right to left. He'd anticipated it, but this time there was a satisfying _crack!_ of _shinai_ against _shinai_, and it hurt but she didn't care because she'd made contact, she'd _hit the shinai_, and that was all that mattered.

He let her hit him after that. She never scored a point on him, never touched _him_, but she hit the _shinai_ any number of times. This was nothing like the restrained power of the matches that she'd seen in middle school; this was just her wanting to destroy something, and she was pouring everything into it. She didn't know how long she went after him, only that when she finally dropped the _shinai_ that her hands ached and pounded as though she'd put them through a meat grinder, that her hair was soaked through with sweat, that she was wobbling from side to side in an effort not to pass out.

It felt like her vision skipped, and then the enemy she'd been going after was Morinozuka-san again, and he looked calm and slightly pleased with her. She swayed on her feet, wondering if this was another dream, and if it was, if this was a good thing. There was someone standing next to her, and for an instant she could see Hani-kun, looking pleased, before someone scooped her up off her feet and she couldn't speak a word. She'd calculated it out the night before; over the past week she'd possibly managed to get a cumulative seven hours of sleep, minus the solid ten she'd made do with on the first night. She hadn't noticed it until now, when it had crashed down on her like a thousand pound weight, but she had no energy left to protest.

There was a sudden burst of squabbling once the door opened – she could hear Suou-san berating both Hani-kun and Mori-san (_when did he become Mori-san?_) at the top of his lungs, and the twins not far behind, and Haruhi by Mori-san's elbow peering into her face and relaxing a little when Tsubaki wet her lips and said, "Hi," in a tiny hoarse voice. And then she'd been set on her own feet again, in front of her door, and the others were gone; it was just her and Mori-san and Hani-kun.

Hani-kun had her hand in his. She hadn't noticed that before. He squeezed it a little, and said, with a smile, "Good job, Tsubaki-chan," before walking away. Mori-san mussed her hair and followed him.

Tsubaki went into her room, showered until she could at least pretend to be conscious, and changed clothes, shoving the T-shirt and long pajama pants into the duffel bag she'd been supplied with. Then she studied herself in the mirror, clinically, wondering what the blisters on her palms had done for her. The anger was still there, and the fear, but less of it, and now there was something else that kept her from feeling empty. She felt proud of herself for hitting the target as many times as she had, proud of that single statement – _Good job, Tsubaki-chan_ – and she liked the ache in her muscles that confirmed her body was real, that she had muscles that could ache.

Suddenly she felt stupid. A fool. She'd let herself be overwhelmed by something that, more than likely, was just a product of her nightmares. Nothing good ever came out of late-night contemplation of big problems. She could handle this. She could handle her life again if she tried.

"Good job, Tsubaki," she said to her reflection, and watched it smile.

* * *

"Kyouya-senpai, what happened this morning?"

They were on the plane, and Haruhi had only glanced back at Tsubaki-chan a few times. She'd fallen asleep maybe ten minutes into the half-an-hour flight. Tamaki-senpai and the twins were fussing over her, and it was a miracle, and a testament to how tired she was, to see that she hadn't woken up yet. Mori-senpai was studying one of his jurisprudence textbooks, Hani-senpai was eating some of the chocolate he'd brought with him onto the plane, and Kyouya-senpai – surprisingly – was awake. He was also the only one who had not asked Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai what had happened out in the garden, and Haruhi's deepest gut instinct was screaming at her that that meant something.

The sharp look gave her said her instinct was right. Kyouya-senpai turned back to his computer almost immediately, and Haruhi cursed the fact that he'd bought an anti-spy slip for his screen, to keep Tamaki-senpai from reading over his shoulder. She couldn't catch what he was writing.

"Is there any indication that I know any more than you do?" He asked, somewhat caustically. Haruhi simply crossed her legs at the ankle, staring at the roof of the plane.

"Because you're the only one who hasn't asked what happened."

"I don't care what happened." And he might not, she realized, looking at him. Did it really matter what happened? What mattered was that what happened, _had_ happened, and that they'd all missed the reasoning for it.

Haruhi shrugged. "Did you find anything about her parents?"

"I've found the name of the battalion that's shepherding them around. It's only a matter of time until I find them, exactly, through a GPS system." His fingers flew over the keyboard. "I've also taken the opportunity to look deeper into her records, but I've found very little to indicate a mental breakdown of this nature."

"Is it a breakdown?"

"All symptoms indicate that. So far as I am aware of them," he added, giving himself a loophole to get out of it if he had to. "She is far angrier than any of us imagined. Far angrier than she was several days ago."

"Then did something happen?"

"I found her phone records." He turned the laptop a little, and she studied the spreadsheet on the screen. "She missed a call from this number at approximately two-oh-seven in the morning. Today," he clarified, as though she couldn't see the date on it for herself. "It was only about an hour and twenty minutes after this that I ran into Hani-senpai and he mentioned that she suddenly seemed far angrier and more upset. And frightened," he added.

"Frightened?"

"I traced the number back to Tokyo. It's listed under the name Takashima Masao. Takashima Masao is Shou's uncle by marriage. Her aunt is her mother's sister." A picture up on the screen, of a sour-looking woman, a picture of Tsubaki if she had drunk curdled milk. They even had the same brown hair. "Satsuki."

"She looks so pleasant." Haruhi said, pleased to see his mouth quirk a little. It took a lot to get Kyouya-senpai to see the humor in a situation.

"Indeed." He pulled up a few more photographs, a few more spreadsheets. "There seems to be very little contact between Shou's family and her aunt's family. The security cameras on the apartment complex shows her aunt visiting a few days after her parents disappearance. There's no audio, but I have a program for such things." Haruhi didn't ask. "Takashima Satsuki wants Shou and her younger sister to stay with her. And she was quite abusive about the point. There was nothing else I could find, but I would guess the message last night is a repeat of the original request. And Shou panicked."

"So she's panicking over having too much to do, and not wanting to stay with her aunt?"

"Partly. I suggest you ask Hani-senpai more." Kyouya-senpai turned his computer back to its original position. "If I had her phone I could make a better hypothesis."

"I'm not going to help you steal someone's phone." Haruhi said, and stood, exasperated with him. "Feel free to hack as much as you please, but don't add grand larceny to your list of crimes, please."

"Borrowing a cell phone is by no means grand larceny." He corrected, but he didn't push the issue, and Haruhi went back to her original seat to mediate the argument that was brewing between the twins and Tamaki-senpai. She could question Tsubaki later. And she already had an idea of how she could help.

* * *

"Nee-chan!"

She knew that voice. Tsubaki lifted her head, swinging the duffel bag the twins had (grudgingly, she had to admit) insisted that she take, now that she had "tainted it by touching it" over her shoulder and peering over the crowd. Sometimes, she really hated being short.

"Yumi! Where are you?"

Yumi laughed, and Tsubaki finally caught sight of her. Marie-san's husband, Ryouji-san, had lifted her up onto his shoulder so she could see over the crowd, and she was waving frantically.

Hikaru dropped an elbow onto her head, and Tsubaki scowled at him as Haruhi sighed exasperatedly. She seemed to do that a lot. "Hikaru, remember what happened when Tamaki-senpai invaded Tsubaki-chan's space."

Hikaru didn't remove his elbow. "So that's your little sister?"

"Is there a problem here, fashion boy?" Tsubaki asked sourly, stepping onto the escalator down to the first floor. Hikaru put his hands behind his head, giving her scalp one last dig with his elbow beforehand, and Tsubaki rolled her eyes.

"Not really. She's cute, in a common sort of way." He said, staring out into the main part of the airport. Tsubaki rolled her eyes again, trying not to fall asleep again. She just wanted to crash out on the floor.

"I'll take that as a compliment on her behalf."

"Can't see how she's related to you."

"Kaoru, your twin is mocking me again." Tsubaki called, loud enough to catch the attention of several other people on the escalator. "Make him stop."

Kaoru shrugged. "I don't think I've ever had any control over Hikaru that way. You'll have to deal with it yourself."

"I have a question." Haruhi said after a moment. "Why are we disembarking here? We didn't go through the airport last time."

"Because we told your dad and Shoumi's sister that we'd meet them down there, that's why." Hikaru replied. "Trust me, I'd rather go straight home and not have to deal with security, but that's how Tono decided we should do it."

Tsubaki couldn't wait any longer. She clattered down the escalator, dipping through the crowd and trying not to clock anyone in the head with her duffel bag as she did so. Haruhi's call of "Tsubaki-chan, where are you going?" went unanswered; the moment she hit the ground floor, Tsubaki dropped the bag the twins had given her, falling to her knees to catch her younger sister in her arms and inhale the smell of her. It was comforting; Yumi smelled like home.

"I'm so sorry, sweetie." She breathed into her hair. "I'm sorry that I was away for so long."

Yumi tightened her arms around her (well, as far around as Yumi's arms could reach; she couldn't even clasp her hands behind Tsubaki's back) and hid her face in Tsubaki's shoulder, and she wondered if it was possible to feel so much happiness and so much guilt at the same time.

_Don't think about that now_. She was smiling so hard her face hurt, but she didn't particularly care. She was back, after a week of beach-slumming. She was back in Tokyo, back in control, back in her life, back with her sister again. Nothing else really mattered.

"You've put on weight." Tsubaki scolded, lifting Yumi up with one arm and throwing the duffel bag over her shoulder again with the other. "I told you not to eat so much cookie dough."

"But –" Yumi began. Then her eyes fell on the host club, and her mouth dropped open. She was only four, but the posturing of them wasn't lost on her. Nor, Tsubaki suspected, was she immune to their charms, like Haruhi was. She doubted that any female with the least amount of sense about men (Haruhi being excluded from this category) could go _un_affected by these boys, no matter what their age was.

"Ah, is this Yumi-chan?" Haruhi said, saving Tsubaki from having to deal with any ostentatious prattling from Suou-san or the twins. "It's nice to meet you. Tsubaki-chan talked about you a lot."

Yumi made no answer. She shrank back a little.

"And you must be Marie-san and Ryouji-san." Haruhi continued, glancing over Tsubaki's shoulder and meeting the shocked eyes of Tsubaki's manager and her husband. "I'm Fujioka Haruhi, a friend of Tsubaki's. It's nice to meet you."

Marie-san recovered first. She cleared her throat, and Tsubaki made a mental note to inform Marie-san about the true gender of Fujioka Haruhi at the first possible opportunity – she looked a little too starry-eyed. "Welcome back. My name is Kanagawa Marie, and this is my husband, Ryouji. It's a pleasure to meet all of you."

Ryouji inclined his head, and Tsubaki inwardly thanked his taciturnity. He was tall enough to look Morinozuka-san in the eye, and almost as quiet – he wasn't about to go gaga over the host club, thank God.

Suou-san cleared his throat, and Tsubaki yelped. "Oh, right – Marie-san, Ryouji-san, these are the people who kidnapped me last week –"

"And I keep telling you that it wasn't a kidnapping, it was lawful abduction to prevent deterioration of your brain cells." Hikaru said peevishly. Tsubaki grimaced.

"This obnoxious infant is Hitachiin Hikaru. His twin, Kaoru, is over there – he's more mature, so you can trust him a little more, though trusting either of them farther than you can throw them isn't a smart decision."

"Oi!" Hikaru bleated. Tsubaki ignored him.

"From the left, you're looking at Haninozuka Mitsukuni-san, Morinozuka Takashi-san, Suou Tamaki-san, Ootori-Kyouya-san, and Fujioka Haruhi-san. Haruhi is the only sane one out of the lot of them, so please be careful."

"Again, oi." Hikaru snapped. "Don't make me show off the pictures."

"What pictures?" Tsubaki whirled on him, her voice going a little higher. "What pictures are you talking about?"

Someone snagged her around the neck. Tsubaki scrambled to get away, but Kaoru simply tightened his grip, and she quieted a little; she didn't want to end up strangled, after all.

"You want to calm down before we show you the pictures." He said, raising his eyebrows at Hikaru as Yumi scowled; she wasn't used to sharing her sister's personal space. Looking fed up, Yumi slid down to the ground instead. "Both of you quit baiting each other."

"Let me go, you cretin!"

Marie-san cleared her throat.

"Actually, Tsubaki-chan, there's something we have to tell you." She said, clasping her hands together. "I hope you won't mind, but we actually –"

"Shou?"

Tsubaki's mouth closed so fast that the click must have echoed through two Tokyo prefectures. Behind her. He was right behind her, and she…

Faster than she could have thought possible, Tsubaki ducked out from under Kaoru's arm and turned, her hair whipping around to smack her in the face. Tousaku Makoto was holding on to several cans of what looked like cool tea with both hands, but all three of them looked ready to tumble out of his fingers; one of them tilted and started to fall.

Tsubaki lunged forward and caught it before the thought even crossed her mind; her sanity had turned into a jangle of nerves, mixed up feelings, and stationary thoughts, making her completely incapable of doing anything more than automatic actions. Everything seemed to move in slow motion; her fingers closed around the can of tea, cool metal against her skin; she caught her balance, straightened, and found herself far, far closer than she had ever intended to go. Only about a hand's length separated them.

Blood filled her face, and she cleared her throat. "Um. Here."

"Right." He took the can, and their fingers brushed. "Thanks."

She stared at him for a moment, unable to say another word. Then someone – it sounded obnoxiously like Hikaru – cleared his throat, and she jumped so badly she nearly lost her balance again.

"T-Tousaku-kun, I-I think you saw the twins." She stuttered, turning so she wouldn't have to look at his face. "The right hand one is Hikaru, and the left hand one is Kaoru, and that's Suou-san, Ootori-san, Morinozuka-san, Haruhi, and Mitsu – Hani-kun. This is Tousaku Makoto, a friend from middle school."

"Nice to meet you." Tousaku-kun said stiffly. Tsubaki couldn't look behind her to see what the problem was; she was still bright red.

"Don't you mean your –" Hikaru started. Looking deceptively innocent, Suou-san stepped backwards onto the toes of his shoes, cutting off the words before they escaped Hikaru's too-big mouth. Marie-san looked a little relieved. After a moment, Haruhi laughed.

"Hikaru, the pictures aren't blackmail worthy." She rummaged around in her duffel bag before drawing out what looked like a photo album, pushing it towards Tsubaki. "Here. We meant to give you this on the plane, but Tamaki-senpai fell asleep and forgot."

Tsubaki stared at it blankly, her hand taking it of its own accord. It wasn't garishly decorated, like she would have expected of the host club – the covers were made of red leather, with a metallic silver clip on each corner to protect it from fraying. She ran her hands over it, then dropped her own bag onto the floor of the airport and opened it.

The first picture had clearly been taken covertly, probably by Sakuya or Nanami, the maids. It was the entirety of the host club, plus her, on the beach; she couldn't remember what day it was. She had the beach ball, and Hani-kun was beaming into the camera.

"What is this?" She asked quietly, turning the page. She and Ootori-san talking under the big umbrella, and, on the opposite side, she and Haruhi and the twins playing volleyball. She'd teamed up with Kaoru and they had both been completely creamed, but it had been fun anyway.

"A photo album." Suou-san said, unnecessarily. "A birthday present."

"What? No, I –"

"Please." Haruhi closed the book, putting her hand over Tsubaki's. "Take it. First of all, it was my idea, so you know that the twins won't be asking for a return gift –"

"Oi." Hikaru said, for the third time. Everyone ignored him.

"And you have to remember that this was a birthday gift." Haruhi continued. "So you can't give it back. It would be rude."

"She won't have a problem with being rude." Hikaru sighed. "She's good at it."

"Hikaru, if you don't be quiet, you're going to be strangled, and I'm not going to do a thing to stop it." Kaoru said.

"This is way too much." Tsubaki said finally. "I can't take this on top of everything else –"

"That was their gift." Haruhi said. "This is mine. I'm going to have to insist on this. Take it."

After a moment, Tsubaki nodded, casting her head forward to hide the tears in her eyes. Haruhi smiled and withdrew her hands, letting Tsubaki press the gift against her chest.

"Thank you." Her voice was little more than a mumble. "Very much."

She turned to follow the others, who were heading for the nearest café, but Haruhi caught her elbow and pulled her back. "Tsubaki, wait a second."

She stopped. Wondered what was going on. Haruhi didn't look nervous or anything, but she did seem a bit off somehow.

"I don't really know what happened this morning, but that's really none of my business." Haruhi began. "I just know that you've been upset, and none of us have noticed. And I feel really guilty for that."

"You don't have to be –"

"That's not the point." Haruhi smiled. "And it's not the reason I'm asking you this. You might not have come willingly, but it's been great to spend this week with you. You're my friend, Tsubaki-chan. And I wanted to help you, but I couldn't think of any way, until this morning."

Tsubaki waited. Clutched the photo album to her chest.

"I know that your aunt called you this morning. Kyouya-senpai checks everyone's phone records pretty regularly and he caught it. And I don't know what she said, but I was thinking you've been pretty stressed by your life at the moment. And since I'm your friend," she stressed the word, "it gave me an idea. I want to invite you and your little sister to stay with my dad and me until things settle down a bit."

Tsubaki couldn't speak.

"I know all of your friends are either out of town or can't help you. And I know that you don't want to go stay with your aunt, it was all over your face when I mentioned her. And I also know that staying with any of the boys," she rolled her eyes, "will eventually drive you insane. So I wanted to invite you to the apartment. It's little, but there's room for you and your little sister – neither of you are very big," Haruhi joked, "and you can lock your apartment. You don't even have to put it up for rent. It'll still be there for when your parents get home. But not having to do every single chore all the time will take some of the stress off. You can keep your job at Délice and you'll still go to your school. And my dad can take care of Yumi. He's home most days, and he loves little kids."

"Haruhi –" Her voice was strangled. "I can't."

"You're not alone, Tsubaki-chan." Those honey-brown eyes had pinned her to the floor, flooded her with even more guilt. "You might think it, but you're not alone. You have us now, and as much as that might be freaky, it's real. We're your friends. You'll still have school and homework and Délice, you won't give up anything that's yours. We can help you look for your parents."

Tsubaki suddenly couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything other than stare. Haruhi's expression was utterly calm, and somehow grounding. And the prospect of taking just the slightest bit of pressure off herself – not enough to lose herself, but enough to relax a bit – was infinitely tempting. But the same manners that had been drilled into her since birth had immediately rejected the idea.

"You know it wouldn't be for free, right?" Haruhi said, suddenly mock stern. "You can pay a rent. You get to learn how to handle my dad, who can...be a bit odd sometimes. You'll have chores to do and you'll help around the house, do the shopping sometimes, help sort mail, take care of Yumi."

"But –"

"And you'll have to deal with the host club pretty frequently, and trust me, that's a full-time job in and of itself."

"I –"

"Please." Tsubaki stared at her. Haruhi stared back. "Just let me do this, Tsubaki. I've already talked about it with my dad. I called him right after we disembarked. He's fine with it."

Nothing.

"Tsubaki, please."

"Okay." The word was a whisper, too low to hear.

"What?"

"Okay." She took a deep breath, and looked up at Haruhi again. "Okay. I'll pay rent. And I'll help around the house. And I'll stay. But only until my parents get back."

"Only until your parents get back," Haruhi confirmed, and smiled.

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**Okay, FF is freaking out where formatting is concerned. I'll come back and fix it later. I don't want to risk putting up any real definitions (or the chapter will delete) but an omiai is a meeting for potential marriage partners. That's the only one I'm risking.**

**Sorry for the long wait, guys. I'll try to get the next chapter out soon. And if there are any inconsistencies, let me know.**


	8. Chapter 8

_iStat:  
Chapter title - none  
Word Count - 8,998 words  
Rating - PG-14. Sexual innuendoes by one waitress Rin-san. (Of course, you all say, who else but Rin-san? Well, you just see...)_

_This is one of my Christmas gifts to my adoring public! (Okay, not really, but you get the idea.) I have officially updated once more! Yes! I feel proud too. And there are two more stories posted on my account (one of which is already done, so no waiting for you guys...) and a sequel to _Antipathy_ (but not what you're thinking_.) _So. Yes. I am proud. The chocolate plot bilby in the sky has been very good to me._

_DISCLAIMER: __I do not own any aspect of Ouran High School Host Club. The club and all of its accouterments belongs to the honorable Hatori Bisco-sensei. If I owned it, then I would know what happens, darn it!_

___And sorry for any formatting problems._

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Chapter Eight  
"_I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."  
__"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take more than nothing."  
_**~ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland**

It had been surprisingly easy to shift her clothes and schoolbooks over to Haruhi's apartment. They weren't that far apart, considering; it was probably a five minute train ride. Easy enough to carry boxes of books and papers and clothes and a camera over.

Yumi had delighted in the idea of moving, especially once she and Tsubaki went to dinner at the Fujiokas' one night before all the terms had been hashed out. Tsubaki had nearly dropped her plate at the sight of the man (_that's a man?_) sitting at the dining table, but Yumi had been enchanted by Ranka-san.

_Guess 'odd' is a synonym for 'okama' these days, I guess_. Tsubaki hadn't commented, and had been pleased to hear that Ranka-san would tone it down the slightest bit when Yumi came to stay with them. Not quite so many late nights at the bar.

She liked Ranka-san. The instant Yumi had fallen asleep he'd collected a blanket from the hall closet and put it over her, and asked if Yumi had any friends. It had been startling to hear such a quick assessment from this person who had been so unexpected, but suddenly Tsubaki had poured out the story that Yumi had told her the first time she'd met Mori-san and Hani-kun, and more. She told him about how smart Yumi was, how frustrated she could get, how focused. She told him about Yumi's stubbornness and her astuteness, about how her aunt treated them both, and about how the other kids had asked if their mother had left because of something they had done. When she'd finished, finished struggling to find the words, Ranka-san had reached out and taken her hand, and said something very similar to what she'd told Yumi that day – that there was no way her mom and dad could have left because of them.

And she'd nearly burst into tears like a little child and fought the impulse to hug him.

He'd helped her organize a meeting with Ritsu-san, the manager of the pre-school, and had taken it for granted that he would be going with her. "As back-up. You'll be the one directing everything," he said, when she'd opened her mouth to protest. "I'll just be a friend of the family. Is Friday after next okay?"

Haruhi had helped them pack their things the next day, and even as Tsubaki was finally unloading some of her things in Haruhi's room (she and Yumi were staying in there, and sharing a futon) she wondered why she hadn't wanted to do this before. Why she hadn't let herself contemplate the possibility.

She even had a chance to call Megumi back in between moving and working at Délice, and Megumi had been very relieved to hear from her. Tsubaki drank in every aspect of Morioka she could get. _Why didn't I call her before? It's so easy to talk to her_. Like Megumi had never left.

She left her camera in the box, though. She couldn't even think about picking it up yet.

Gradually the days before the meeting with Ritsu-san developed into a pattern. There was about a month and a half left of summer break by the time they came back from Nekozawa-san's freaking beach-house resort, and after three days of cramming (and Haruhi's help) she had her summer homework done. And then she had a schedule.

Every morning, up at five, making Yumi's bento box for school; she was usually joined by Haruhi for this, who was just up that early normally, and then after the bento box was done they typically sat down and had breakfast.

Yumi was usually up by seven. Tsubaki never saw Ranka-san in the mornings, because he stayed out late at the club and usually swanned into the apartment at midnight or later. At seven-thirty, Tsubaki collected her things, packed them into the duffel bag and went off to Délice, where she worked until about three-thirty in the afternoon. Then she went to the park.

She'd arranged to continue with the kendo. She hadn't thought before her meltdown at the freaking beach-house resort that she would ever want to try it, but the night after they'd come back to Tokyo, and she'd woken up from the same nightmare, about the garden and the pit, her fingers had ached so terribly she had wanted to scream. It had only stopped when she'd dismantled the shower curtain, taken the curtain rod apart, and gone downstairs into the main lot of the apartment and smacked at thin air. It hadn't helped much, but it had helped, and that had cemented her decision.

So when Hani-kun and Mori-san had come into Délice on the third day she'd been working again, she'd taken advantage of the fact that Rin was in the back room with Marie-san and Eichi, and asked if they knew any good teachers. Hani-kun had brightened so fast that it was almost like a supernova, and before Tsubaki had been able to blink away the flash, he'd organized that Mori-san would be her teacher, and that the lessons would be for free – not because she couldn't afford it, but because the question of money simply never came up.

Mori-san hadn't objected, which Tsubaki wasn't sure was a good thing or not. She'd managed to wrangle out the idea that the lessons would be in the park, not at the Morinozuka estate (_that would have just been too weird_). The park was neutral territory: it didn't belong to anyone dirt-poor, or anyone richer-than-God rich.

She hadn't been sure what to expect from the lesson, but it had been surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) quiet. Hani-kun came to the first few, but after that he either retreated or had a clashing appointment (or said he did) so sometimes (and then more than sometimes) he never showed up at all. So it was usually just her and Mori-san, and it was calm and quiet, and relaxing, because there were never any expectations placed on her other than the ones given to her with the _shinai_.

It hadn't only been quiet: it had been _normal_. Haruhi had been right: out of the entire host club, Hani-kun and Mori-san were perhaps the closest to sane, and out of those two, she had to judge that Mori-san was more than likely the closest to normality. Most of the time, anyway. And he was a good teacher, despite the fact that he almost never opened his mouth. It didn't seem to be shyness; it was just that he never saw reason to open his mouth. Which meant that she had to learn to pick up nonverbal cues, _stat_.

It was harder than she'd imagined. It was like trying to translate a language, with her only clues in another language she couldn't understand. She had to fight to pick up even a single word of it. The more vocabulary she gathered, the easier it became, but still there were times where she had to think it over for a while before she understood the meaning. And sometimes he would talk aloud, which helped, but usually it was the other way around – she talked to him, and translated the varying degrees of silence.

It was surprisingly soothing once she managed to catch the hang of it, though she was still pretty much illiterate in silence, and when she understood something, it was almost more satisfying than mastering a _shinai_ stroke.

After the kendo lesson, which usually lasted about two hours, she went back to the Fujiokas' apartment (one less thing to tell the host club) and spent time with Yumi, something she hadn't been able to do in months. Through sly questions she slipped into the conversation, she gathered more ammunition about the preschool. She also talked with Ranka-san and Haruhi, and despite how odd it had seemed at first it now it was perfectly natural.

The Friday of her meeting with Ritsu-san she canceled her morning shift (volunteering to take the double-shift the next day) and slept until six-thirty, which was a delicacy shattered by the idea of visiting the preschool later on that day. Yumi was absolutely delighted that Tsubaki-nee-chan and Ranka-oba-chan (Tsubaki had a feeling Yumi knew just what Ranka-san was, and pretended she didn't to see the delight on the man's face) would be coming along with her to school, though she didn't mention the meeting. It was times like these that Yumi could scare her. She had a very strange perception on the world for a child her age.

Ranka-san wouldn't be coming into the room with her – that was her own special meeting with Ritsu-san. But he _was _walking to the preschool with them, and keeping an eye on Yumi-chan while she was in the meeting. There was a possibility that they would just end up taking Yumi-chan home again afterwards; if they had to leave the preschool and find a new one, Tsubaki had no idea what she would have to do.

"You're sure you're all right." Ranka-san said for exactly the fifty-fourth time since they'd started walking. They were standing in front of the preschool, and Yumi had slipped away from Ranka-san to take Tsubaki's hand and squeeze it. Tsubaki squeezed back.

"I think so." _Besides, if I'm not, that's not really an issue, now is it?_ "Let's go in."

The interior of the preschool was brightly colored, and filled with children, all around Yumi's age. Maybe some were a little younger, and some were a little older, but it was mostly a tightly knit group of four-year-olds. One or two of the adults glanced up, saw Tsubaki and Yumi, and exchanged glances that made Tsubaki want to bolt from the room. _Thank God Haruhi convinced Ranka-san to dress male today._

"Tsubaki-chan!" Ritsu-san swanned into the room, spreading her hands wide, smiling a crocodile smile. Tsubaki closed her eyes for a moment, and drew a steadying breath. "And Yumi-chan, too, how exciting. Yumi-chan, why don't you go play with the others? I have to talk to your nee-chan for a few minutes."

Yumi gave Ritsu-san a look that spoke volumes, then tugged on Tsubaki's hand. Tsubaki knelt down and let Yumi put a pair of sticky hands around her ear to whisper: "Love you, nee-chan."

"Love you too." She hugged Yumi, and Yumi darted to the bookshelf, which most of the kids were avoiding. She took out one of the basic books and plopped down onto the floor with it, turning it with practiced fingers.

"Oh, Ritsu-san – this is Fujioka Ranka-san, the father of a friend of mine. We're staying with them until my parents come back." The words tasted bitter in her dry mouth. "Ranka-san, this is Shirikawa Ritsuko-san. She's the principal of the preschool."

"Nice to meet you." Ritsu-san looked at Ranka-san for a moment, clearly evaluating him, and then dismissed him with a flick of her eyes. "So you're staying with friends now, Tsubaki-chan? That should make everything easier. It should take the stress off of both you and Yumi-chan." She glanced at Ranka-san again, and then smiled at Tsubaki. "Let's begin, shall we? In my office. Fujioka-san, if you could wait in the reception area, that would be appreciated."

Tsubaki nodded. "All right." She looked at Ranka-san. "I'll be right back."

"Remember Goethe." He said, and turned away. Tsubaki drew a breath. She'd mentioned a Goethe quote in their discussion of what to say to Ritsu-san, and he'd obviously remembered it. _Love does not dominate, it cultivates; and that is more. _If the preschool was really all it claimed to be, then they wouldn't be excluding Yumi. They wouldn't be bullying her. They would love her. And they would help her. And if that was true, then this meeting would go smoothly, and this wouldn't be a problem for anyone at all.

"This way, Tsubaki-chan." Ritsu-san gestured towards the back of the room. Tsubaki waved at Yumi, and followed her, aware of multiple pairs of eyes tailing them across the playroom floor.

Ritsu-san's office was a collection of Zen artifacts, from a miniature stone garden to a small fountain tinkling in the corner. Tsubaki settled in the chair opposite Ritsu-san's desk, surprised at the sudden cut-off of sound; the door was so thick she could barely even hear the music jangling in the front room, let alone the children outside. Ritsu-san tilted her head inquisitively to the right. "So? Tsubaki-chan. You said you had something to talk to me about."

"Oh." Tsubaki tore her eyes away from the ink painting on the wall, and wondered what on earth she was supposed to say. She'd talked it all over with Ranka-san, but now that she was actually sitting and looking at Ritsu-san, it had all flown from her head. _Think, you idiot, think_! _Love does not dominate, it cultivates; and that is more_.

What would Haruhi do in this situation? Haruhi was a good choice. Haruhi was a sane choice. Haruhi would get right to the point. Tsubaki took a breath. "Yumi isn't happy here."

Ritsu-san blinked. Sat back further in her chair. "Really? I don't have that impression."

"She told me that the other kids blame her for our parents' trip." It felt like wasps were buzzing in her head. "A few weeks ago she ran away and came to me at Délice. She implied that the other children were treating her badly. That she was being excluded."

"If there was any bullying happening, Tsubaki-chan, the teachers would handle it, I'm certain. We're very attentive about that sort of thing."

_Of course you are_. "She says that the teachers no longer call on her for answers, or say she gets the answers wrong even though she's correct. She's told them about the exclusion incidents and they haven't done anything about it. Or so I've heard from Yumi."

"I see." Ritsu-san pondered that for a moment. "It must have been a misunderstanding, Tsubaki-chan. I'm sure that none of the teachers who work here would do something like that. Maybe Yumi-chan is simply making up stories; I've heard that little children without parents often do things like that. To pass the lonely hours."

Tsubaki couldn't speak for a moment. She had always liked Ritsu-san, always appreciated how willing she was to look after Yumi, and now the woman was either baiting her or trying to insult Yumi. Possibly both.

"Maybe so." She said, through clenched teeth. _You mess with my little sister, you witch, and you mess with me._ "But I've always had a faith in Yumi's judgment of people. I believe her. She's never lied to me before."

"Children lie, Tsubaki-chan. It's a natural fact of their brain development. The sense of right and wrong that adults have is not really fully present in a child until after adolescence. So lying isn't really that uncommon a characteristic in a four-year-old."

"I'm sorry, Ritsu-san – Shirikawa-san. But you're wrong. And if you're willing to accuse my sister, who is probably the most honest person I have ever had the gift to meet, of lying in order to – to attract attention or something – no." Anger was buzzing in her ears like the rasp of an angry hive of wasps. "I'm sorry. But no."

Ritsu-san looked at her for a long moment, and then folded her hands on the table. "Tsubaki-chan. May I be honest with you for a moment?"

Tsubaki swallowed back the retort she was dying to make and nodded, stiffly, feeling like the Tin Woodman in _The Wizard of Oz_. The book, not the movie. _Where did they put my oil can?_

"Yumi-chan is…very precocious." Ritsu-san couldn't seem to look at her anymore. She was studying her laced fingers. "It's impossible not to see that. She's already reading at an elementary school level. She's a very special child. Your mother often said so. She also mentioned, sometimes, how difficult it was to be around her. Yumi-chan, however bright she is, is also a child, and a very bright child is sometimes worse than a very stupid child. Her sense of self, and of honor and justice, and truth and lies, is very much like a teenager in late adolescence. She has the knowledge and experience of a child and the brain and temperament of a near adult. In a word, she's brilliant. And I can't imagine how hard this must be for you."

"First you tell me that Yumi is lying because she's too young to know the difference between right and wrong." Tsubaki said. "Then you tell me that she's pretty much a teenager trapped in a four-year-old body, and that her sense of truth and lies is about the same as mine. Please make up your mind, Ritsu-san."

"My mind is quite made up." Another breath of silence. "Tsubaki-chan, I think that both you and Yumi-chan should go and stay with relatives until your parents come back."

It felt like Ritsu-san had seized the fly swat sitting innocently on the desktop and slammed Tsubaki across the face with it. Tsubaki actually flinched, jerking her face to the side with the force of the imaginary blow. "_What_?"

"Yumi-chan is too difficult for you to handle, Tsubaki-chan. If your mother, a talented, charming, self-possessed woman in her late thirties, sometimes despairs of taking care of Yumi-chan, then how can you, a girl yourself – you're only just sixteen – take care of that exceptional little girl?"

Tsubaki stood up. "You've been talking to my aunt."

"Your aunt came in a few days ago and spoke to me about the issue. I understand that she's offered several times to let you and Yumi-chan stay at her house, and instead you're staying at the house of a friend." Ritsu-san didn't stand; she simply looked at Tsubaki. "I know that it may not seem like it at the moment, Tsubaki-chan, but going to your aunt's is probably the best choice you can make."

"That's –" Tsubaki couldn't speak for a moment, she was so angry. "That's _none_ of your business, Ritsu-san! You have absolutely _no right_ to be talking with my aunt behind my back, no right _at all_ –"

"Tsubaki-chan –"

"No." Tsubaki stumbled back, hit the wall, and groped for the doorknob. "That woman has nothing to do with my family. _Nothing_ to do with my family. Nothing!"

"Tsubaki-chan, wait –"

There it was, the knob. Tsubaki flung the door open and stumbled out into the hall. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ranka-san stand up, looking concerned. Yumi was sitting with him. Apparently the playroom had grown too boring for her.

Ritsu-san came after her. "Tsubaki-chan! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have spoken to her, I know that – it wasn't my place – but I was worried about you and I was worried about Yumi-chan. Doesn't that mean something?"

Tsubaki didn't look at her. She gathered Yumi up into her arms, trying to hide the fact that she was shaking. _Even now the woman can't leave us well enough alone. Even _now_. _

"Tsubaki-chan –"

"My aunt has absolutely no claim over my sister and me." Holding onto Yumi made her feel stronger. Tsubaki turned and looked at Ritsu-san, who fell abruptly silent. "And if she has led you to believe otherwise, then I'm sorry for shouting at you. But that woman is a vicious scheming liar –" her voice shook "–a control-freak and a coward. She couldn't even speak to me to my _face _to tell me that I was mistreating –" Tsubaki tightened her arms around Yumi, and Yumi had a strangle-hold around her neck. Her eyes were wide as she watched Ritsu-san and then Tsubaki and then Ritsu-san again, taking it all in. "I'm sorry, Ritsu-san, but neither of us can come near this place as long as you listen to that woman's lies." HEr voice broke. "I hope I'll see you again."

"Wait – Tsubaki-chan!"

Tsubaki turned away, and left the room at a fast trot. She barely noticed the tears pouring down her cheeks until she was back in the Fujiokas' apartment, and then she was clinging to Haruhi and sobbing and sobbing until she couldn't hold on to consciousness any longer.

Yumi sat next to her and held her hand tight the whole way through it.

* * *

_I'm useless. If I break down and cry every time I have some little problem I have to deal with I'm never going to get stronger._ Because she had to get stronger, for Yumi's sake. She had to. _I'm going to get stronger, Mom, Dad. Do you hear? I'm going to take care of Yumi, and Aunt Satsuki isn't going to get either of us. I promise you that._

* * *

Another day. Tsubaki woke up and her eyes were almost glued shut. She heard a voice warbling in and out of her ears. "…nervous exhaustion…the fatigue's caught up with her…should be fine tomorrow." _Oh. Something's wrong with me. _The world darkened again.

When she pulled her eyes open again, Yumi's face wobbled over hers.

"Tsubaki-nee-chan!"

"Tsubaki-chan!" That was Haruhi. Tsubaki blinked a few times, and turned her head slightly. The clock said twelve. Exactly. And the light shining into the room said that it wasn't midnight, either. She looked up at the ceiling again.

"Oh." Her voice was a croak. "What happened?"

"You fainted." Haruhi said, in her matter-of-fact way. "Or, actually, you cried yourself to sleep and then we couldn't get you out of bed. Dad panicked and thought you'd caught some dreadful disease, but when he called the doctor he said you were just exhausted. Like I thought." There was relief in her words though. "Mei-chan and the host club came by to see you, but I didn't let them in."

_Mei-chan_? The name was vaguely familiar. Haruhi smacked her open palm with a clenched fist. "Oh, right, you haven't met Mei-chan, have you, Tsubaki-chan? I think she goes to your school. Yasumura Mei-chan."

Yasumura. She recognized the name. She was in the same grade, but a different class. A ganguro girl. Tsubaki wondered if she was still dreaming. "Oh."

Something hit her hard. "What about Délice? How much work have I missed? Rin's going to _kill me_ –"

"I've been covering your shifts. Marie-san came to see you as well, and she was quiet enough that I let her in. She brought a few pieces of cake." Out of the corner of her eye, Tsubaki saw Yumi smile. "You can go back to work tomorrow. Not before. And you're taking it easy. Short shifts. You promise me?"

"But if I don't have long shifts then I won't have enough money to –"

"Tsubaki-chan." Haruhi gave her a disapproving look. "Doctor's orders. I swear it's true. No more double-shifts or you're going to collapse again." She waited until Tsubaki mumbled something that only _may_ have been a promise before shaking her head and muttering, "I swear. I thought I was bad at overworking myself. You're worse than me and Tamaki-senpai put together. Only _he _never gets sick over it."

She heard the affection in Haruhi's voice though. Tsubaki caught her friend's – _my friend's _– hand and squeezed it a little. "I promise."

"Good." Haruhi smiled, and then stood, lifting a tray along with her. "A promise is a promise. Come on, Yumi-chan. Let's get these dishes done."

"Okay." Yumi kissed Tsubaki's cheek. "Night, nee-chan."

When the door shut, she slipped back into sleep, but a calmer one this time. No matter what her aunt thought, she did have somewhere she could go.

* * *

Tsubaki collected the dishes from an empty table in the café as the bell jangled, and the excited shout of "Tsubaki-chan!" made her want to smile and sigh at the same time.

Haruhi hadn't gone up to Karuizawa as she'd wished; Ranka-san had flatly vetoed it, and had immediately gone on a job-hunt that Haruhi disapproved of. "_I can find my own job, Dad_," she'd said exasperatedly, and Ranka-san had yelped as though he'd been struck and hugged Haruhi so hard her face had changed colors, chirping about 'his beautiful independent daughter' who might not want to admit it but 'needed some help from her delighted father, no matter what she might think, and that he was going to do the absolute best he could to find the absolute best job in the world for her summer.'

_Like Suou-san if he could_. Tsubaki shook her head at the resemblance.

They were all in the café now, Hani-kun in the lead, and Tsubaki barely had time to put down her dishes before his arms were around her waist and he was squeezing the breath out of her.

Marie-san had changed the uniform. Rather than an _Alice in Wonderland_-esque powder blue loli-gown, it was more trim, black with a full white apron (thankfully with no frills). She'd been ordered by Marie-san to put her hair up, and Tsubaki had complied; it had taken her a while, but she'd managed a sloppy French braid that Ranka-san had promptly undone and redone. Haruhi had rolled her eyes and shaken her head, but said nothing, and Yumi had demanded a similar 'do before going to help Haruhi with the groceries.

Hani-kun let her go, shot her a quick grin, and took the nearest chair. Tsubaki counted, and saw, to her horror, that Haruhi wasn't with them; they'd made this a clandestine mission, probably wary of Haruhi after she'd thrown them out of Tsubaki's exhaustion-room. (A sick-room wasn't the right term for it. She hadn't been sick, after all.) _Please, please, please, don't let them get too crazy_. Kaoru and Hikaru sat down next, side by side, both of them with Cheshire Cat smiles and loud, drawling greetings. Mori-san sat down on Hani-kun's other side with a quirk to his mouth that said, _Hello_, and suddenly she felt happy that she could finally understand it. Suou-san gushed for a moment about her uniform before Tsubaki politely but firmly detached her hand from his grip and showed him to the nearest chair. Then, finally, Ootori-san, who inclined his head, and Tsubaki nodded back.

"So this is the bakery." Hikaru raked his eyes over everything, and looked as though he was struggling to speak. "It's not…completely common, I guess."

"Hikaru! Politeness is essential in an establishment of this nature!" Suou-san shouted, in what he obviously thought was a whisper. "Shou-hime, it's a delight to visit the location where you work! It is far more charming than even I imagined!"

"Um…" Tsubaki struggled to find a response to that. "Thank you, I guess." Then the most pressing question in the history of her universe: "So what are you all doing here?"

"Finding ourselves at liberty for the afternoon we decided it was the best idea to come and visit you at your part-time job!" Suou-san sparkled at her. "And it's delightful! Who designed your uniform?"

"Marie-san, I think. She might have bought it offline, though."

"It's wonderful! Perfect for a theme – Kyouya!" He snapped his fingers. "Get as much information about the dress and its maker as possible and ship one to the club. My precious daughter has a new costume."

Privately, Tsubaki was pretty sure Haruhi would die rather than wear something like her uniform, but she didn't mention it. When she caught Kaoru's eye, lifting her shoulder in a half-shrug, Kaoru cocked an eyebrow at her and hid a smirk.

"You look very cute, Tsubaki-chan!" Hani-kun chirped.

"Thank you." She pulled a menu from the pile she had in her arms and gave them each one. "I'm sorry to rush off, but I have to get these back in the kitchen. Signal me when you're ready to order, will you?"

"You're abandoning us here?" Hikaru asked, and Tsubaki couldn't resist a biting smile.

"You mean you can't take care of yourself? Spoiled little rich boy. I'll be back in a few minutes, all right? Don't bring the house down while I'm away."

"You sound like an old lady." That was Hikaru again. Tsubaki grimaced.

"I'm going to pretend I never heard that."

Tsubaki let out a breath the instant she made it behind the counter, ignoring Rin's excited 'come-hither' motions. Clearly she'd recognized Mori-san from way back when (was it only two weeks ago?) and wanted to interrogate her on 'how the hell she knew people _so – freaking – hot_.' She knew Rin well enough now to be able to anticipate that much.

It was a miracle that they didn't seem to know about Tsubaki staying at the Fujiokas'. She probably would have never been able to escape them if they had. Tsubaki drew a deep breath, hidden behind the counter, before getting out six glasses and filling them with ice water, setting them up on a tray.

She only had a tiny hint of Rin's perfume – an overbearing and somewhat confusing mixture of vanilla, lilac, and honeysuckle (_who buys perfume like that?_) – before the other waitress was behind her, practically breathing fire.

"When he came in two weeks ago, you didn't tell me you _knew _him!" Rin hissed. She seized Tsubaki's elbow and whipped her around. "Baki-Maki, the boy is all _kinds_ of hot! All of them are! And you _know_ them?"

"Somewhat."

"And somehow—" her voice full of six-layered sarcasm cake, with a very thick layer of scornful icing on top "—you managed to forget to tell me this?"

"It's my business just who my associates are, and their business if they want to be introduced to you." Tsubaki carefully disentangled her arm from Rin's clutching fingers. "By all means, go over and introduce yourself if you want to." Muttered under her breath: "They'll probably appreciate the practice."

Rin's eyes grew as wide as heavily made-up saucers. "You mean they're all – I can't believe it. Boys like _that_?"

"What?" Tsubaki blinked at her, puzzled.

"You don't mean to be telling me that all those boys are wet behind the ears? Lacking in understanding? Unaware of the world?" When Tsubaki shook her head, still confused, Rin rolled her eyes. "_Virgins_?"

"_What_?" Tsubaki's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. _How did she get _that _from what _I _said?_

"You should have told me! If I'd known…" Rin turned to look at the club, something dreamy in her eyes. "Maybe I should introduce myself."

_A million different types of NO!_ "Rin. You're on cash-register duty. You can't leave the cash register. Marie-san will kill you if you leave the cash register."

Rin gave her a beady look. "Why? You want one of them for yourself?"

"God, no!" The words were out before she realized it, and suddenly Rin's eyes had narrowed.

"Why? What's wrong with them? Do they swing for the other team? Figures," she sighed, before Tsubaki could work up the nerve to even choke something. "Boys that cute always end up being gay. Damn it all."

Tsubaki stared at her for a long moment, then shook her head a few times and turned away. It felt like she'd just been kicked in the nose. _I so did not just hear what I thought I just heard_. _I meant hosting, not…_that. _I want to take my brain out and wash it in acid_. _And possibly never come out from under the bed again_.

_There's one more thing that I'm never going to tell the host club_. Tsubaki drew a deep breath, and had just managed to force the blush off her face – and the thoughts out of her head – by the time the door chimed again, and she hurried to answer it.

"Hi, I'll be with you in a moment."

"Shou." Tousaku-kun looked a little bit uncomfortable, but he offered her a smile anyways. "Nice to see you back."

_Oh. My. God. Why did he have to pick today? I can't believe this. This has to be a dream. Please, please, please, not all of them at once, don't make me have to deal with all of them at once…_

_He's cute today, though_. She nearly kicked herself for thinking that, but it was true. He _was_ cute today. Very cute.

_Oh, God. I'm screwed._

At least Yumi, Haruhi, and Ranka-san weren't here. That would have been almost intolerable. Especially considering the fact that Ranka-san seemed to refer to Suou-san as 'the cockroach'.

"Tousaku-kun." Her voice was a breathy squeak. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"I guess it has, hasn't it?" He was growing his hair out, like the way he had in middle school. Something squeezed in her throat. "You were on vacation?"

"Of a sort." _If you can count a kidnapping, a moving, and a breakdown from nervous exhaustion as a vacation. God, Marie-san's a tolerant boss…I'm going to have to get her a Christmas present or something. She's Christian, right?_

"If you don't mind me saying…" When she shook her head, he continued. "You look better. Less…stressed. I meant to tell you that last week, but…" He shrugged. "You were never alone, so…"

"Oh." Suddenly she was rolling her eyes. "Those guys don't know when to leave anything alone. They're almost infantile that way." Almost_ infantile? You're not defending them, are you, Tsubaki?_ And then: _Oh, God, don't let them look up and see this_. "There's, um, a table over there." _Behind the plant where the host club can't see you_. "I'll be right with you, okay? Just let me drop off this water."

"All right." He smiled at her again and took the spot she'd gestured to.

_Now I _really_ want to hide under the mattress_. The host club and Tousaku-kun in the same room, so soon after the airplane flight, was terrifying. _Cicero_. _Think of Cicero_. _We may, indeed, indulge in sport and jest, but in the same way as we enjoy sleep or other relaxations, and only when we have satisfied the claims of our earnest, serious task_. That was it. _Focus on the job and you can get through this, Baki_.

She stopped, made a face. _I _so _did not just call myself Baki_. _Rin's rubbing off on me_.

"And Shou?"

It was Tousaku-kun again, from just behind her; the table wasn't that far away. "I wanted to ask you something, so…I guess I'll see you in a minute?"

_Are you joking? You damn well will see me in a minute_. "Okay." Tsubaki smiled, suddenly goofily pleased, and angled through the tables towards the host club, hoping that her happiness didn't show on her face. Hikaru and Kaoru would pick it out instantly and probably spot Tousaku-kun a millisecond after that, because once they saw that she was so very _happynervousexcited_ they would be looking for him, and if it was one thing she didn't need right now, it was getting teased by a pair of Hitachiins.

* * *

When someone was excited, it was easy to tell, even without asking. When Tono was excited – truly excited, not just his perpetual state of being – he enthused about everything, to the point of shattering eardrums. Kyouya-senpai went absolutely still, as though he was frightened of shattering whatever potential loophole he'd found, and remained completely silent. Haruhi shifted from foot to foot a little; the twins grinned and teased far more often than usual; and Hani-senpai spoke very fast and moved even quicker.

Shoumi gleamed. It was a subdued gleam, one with wary eyes on Tono and one that still showed the exhaustion in her, but a gleam nonetheless. The only reason Hikaru didn't notice it was that he were on the phone with Haruhi trying to convince her to join them at Délice and failing spectacularly. Even through the chatter of the café/bakery and the loudness of their voices, he could hear Haruhi's tinny "_I'm studying today_!" from his phone.

It was even more obvious after she'd left the table again, refusing Tono's entreaties to sit down (_I'm on duty, I can't, Marie-san will get irritated_), and hurried over to another table, one near the door and hidden behind a large houseplant. He couldn't see whoever was sitting there, but somehow he knew – Hani-senpai knew – Kyouya-senpai knew who was behind it, as instantly as though water had been thrown in their faces.

_Tousaku_.

"Interesting." Kyouya-senpai said simply, and pushed his glasses up his nose. He'd disdained anything but coffee, and had his laptop set up on the table again. "An unforeseen opportunity has presented itself."

"Kyou-chan." Hani-senpai said, simply. Nothing but a warning could get Kyouya-senpai off the scent of private business.

"A simple statement," Kyouya-senpai added, without looking at Hani-senpai. "An opportunity for research." Before either of them could speak, he continued: "But not here. A surreptitious shadowing of the individual would seem more suitable."

It was a compromise, and a steep one, but there was no way to broach the subject without drawing the attention of the twins. They settled for it. Or Hani-senpai settled for it. Kaoru had to think. There was no way that Hikaru and Tamaki-senpai were going to miss this after they hung up on Haruhi (or Haruhi hung up on them, the more likely occurrence; now Tono was wailing at her too.) Even after she hung up on them, that only guaranteed five minutes of them talking (without realizing that she wasn't answering) before either of them looked up and saw that Shou was acting oddly.

Maybe they could distract Tono, so he didn't notice it - push him onto the topic of either the costumes or the bakery - but Hikaru…no. There would be no escape from Hikaru. Which meant that Hikaru either had to be distracted, or Shoumi had to be kept away from both of them until they left the bakery.

That did it. Kaoru glanced at Hani-senpai, who nodded; then he looked at Kyouya-senpai again. Kyouya-senpai didn't look back at him. He was deep in his computer. Kaoru thought he caught a glimpse of a military-looking screen before he turned the laptop away from all eyes. So he was still searching for Shoumi's parents. Once he decided to do something he just didn't let go, Kyouya-senpai didn't. Not a single handful.

"Hani-senpai, look!" He pointed randomly. Hani-senpai, however, looked delighted, and turned, catching everyone's attention. Out of those random happenstances of fate that seem to work out for everyone, he ended up gesturing towards the wedding cakes. "They're huge."

"Waaaaa…." Hani-senpai may have been the best actor he'd ever seen. There was no difference between his expression now and his usual hungry, eye-melting expression when he saw huge cakes in the club room. "Hika-chan, Hika-chan, come look, come look!"

"What?" Hikaru covered the phone for a moment. "No, Hani-senpai -"

"Come _look_." Hani-senpai nearly growled, and pulled both Hikaru and Mori-senpai out of their chairs. Hikaru dropped his phone. Kaoru picked it up and waited until he was out of earshot before putting it to his ear. "Hello, Haruhi?"

"Kaoru?" Haruhi sounded puzzled. "What just happened?"

"Diversion tactics. If we're careful Shoumi might actually wrangle herself a date before the afternoon's over." He turned away from Tono, who was now trying to peer over Kyouya-senpai's shoulder to see what he was working on. Kyouya-senpai looked about ready to smack him in the head for it. "Hikaru was pulled away."

"You're all evil." She said, but there was good humor in her voice. "If Tsubaki-chan shows up floating on clouds, I'll know the reason why."

And with that strange comment, she hung up and Kaoru put the cell phone on the table, tilting his chair back in an attempt to see around the plant. Shoumi had chosen very well. The enormous bristly houseplant was a perfect shield; the stupid crush could probably see _them_ if he turned and looked, but none of the host club could see _him_. _You are a sneaky, sneaky commoner, Shoumi._

He could think about weird Haruhi statements later. This was far more entertaining.

* * *

When Tsubaki-chan banged into the house later on that evening (after only one five-hour shift - doctor's orders) it was with a slamming sound that made Haruhi concerned if she'd punched a hole in the drywall. Mei-chan jumped. Haruhi had told her about their visitors, but hadn't mentioned the host club at all yet; that was for Tsubaki-chan to talk about, she supposed.

"If they don't get their sorry asses into their stupid limos and down the street in three seconds when I see them again I'm _not _going to be responsible for my actions!" It was a bellow, and a remarkably coherent one, but it still made Yumi-chan blink and sit up. "Stupid damn nosy richer-than-God uncouth lazy ridiculously-dressed freaking flipping _jerks_!"

Mei-chan cocked her head to the side. "Is she talking about who I think she's talking about?"

Haruhi sighed, deeply, and pinched her nose. "I'm sure she is, Mei-chan."

"I'm going to _murder them_!" Tsubaki-chan shouted, but she still hadn't come into the living room. She was rattling around the kitchen for some reason. Maybe looking for a knife. "I'm going to murder them and leave their bodies in the bay weighted down with rocks so that nobody will find them in a million years, and then I'm going to set a camera down there and dive every few hours so I can check the footage and watch the fish eat the flesh off their bones in live action color!"

Mei-chan stuck her popsicle back into her mouth, but not without a satisfied grin. "Yup. Definitely the host club."

"Host club." Haruhi agreed, and stood up. "Tsubaki-chan, are you okay?"

"No, I am _not_ okay!" Tsubaki-chan shrilled, and slammed into the room. She was holding a few bowls of crackers. Evidently she'd seen Mei-chan's shoes at the door but hadn't cared enough to lower her voice. Haruhi couldn't blame her. Yumi-chan jumped at the sight of Tsubaki-chan, but she stuffed a fist in her mouth; she seemed to be struggling not to laugh. "I am _not_ okay! I want them dead, I want to strangle them with my bare hands!"

"We've gathered that." Haruhi took the bowls and set them on the table. "Tsubaki-chan, this is Yasumura Mei-chan - remember, I mentioned we were friends?"

"Ossu." Mei-chan said, and Tsubaki-chan smiled a little before she turned, snarling, back to Haruhi.

"I have your permission, right? You're the person they all care about, I can't start killing them unless I have permission and since I don't know and never want to know their parents -"

"You, my friend, will sit next to me." Mei-chan said, and pointed at the cushion to her left. Tsubaki-chan blinked a few times, taken by surprise. "Anyone who only _wants _to murder the host club after a full day with them gets the seat of honor."

"Oh." That had knocked her off balance. Tsubaki-chan blinked a few times more, and then settled. "Thank you. You're in…class 1-D, right?"

"Yup. Isn't our uniform stupid? All plaid…" Mei-chan stuck the popsicle back into her mouth again. "But this sounds like a promising story. Begin."

Haruhi sat down again, resting her chin on her knees and pulling her legs up to her chest. Tsubaki-chan looked about ready to breathe fire. _Is that what I looked like at the beginning? No, _she decided, studying Tsubaki-chan for a little longer. _And she wouldn't have looked like this last week either. She's opening up a little._ For some reason, this made her feel pleased.

Tsubaki-chan seized a handful of the nori crackers and looked about ready to crush them, but with an effort forced her fingers to open again and ate a few. Mei-chan sat waiting, patiently, the way she did when she wanted something. Haruhi wasn't even sure she wanted to hear it. She'd heard so many stories of host club antics she felt almost jaded. "Did they come to see you at work today?"

"Yes." Tsubaki-chan's voice was pure stone. "They did. And Tousaku-kun -"

"Who?"

"The boy she likes." Haruhi translated absently. "Continue, Tsubaki-chan."

"Tousaku-kun showed up too." Tsubaki-chan had hardly noticed that Haruhi had spoken for her; she was too preoccupied in denuding a cracker of its seaweed covering. "I put him behind a plant, so the host club couldn't see him, but I think they must have guessed something - I know they must have guessed something - because when I came back to the table half of them were gone. Hani-kun was looking at wedding cakes with Hikaru, and Mori-san was with them, but I didn't know if Kaoru realized who was there or the rest of them, so I put the waters down and asked what they wanted to eat."

Mei-chan sat tense and hungry. She heard a kindred spirit under all the polite language. Haruhi was sure of it.

"So I ordered for Hani-kun - he's been to Délice before, I know what he usually orders - and then took the others, and when I turned away and gave the orders to Rin -" For some reason her face turned bright red when she mentioned Rin "- she practically attacked me about who Tousaku-kun was. She'd seen him before, apparently, he…" She blushed harder. "He came to the bakery to check whether I was back when we were gone."

"Do you have a picture?" Mei-chan asked. Tsubaki-chan nodded, and went to rummage in her wallet as she continued to talk.

"I didn't really want to talk to Rin at the moment - I'll explain later - so I just gave her the orders and went to talk to Tousaku-kun. I couldn't sit down with him while the host club was there, I'd already told them I was on the clock and couldn't sit with _them_, because Suou-san was insisting and I had to think of something to say no with, but I stood there and talked to him for a few minutes without any of them noticing."

"Tsubaki-chan, can I interrupt for a second?" Haruhi laid her hand flat on the table. "They may not have said anything, but they probably noticed. Kyouya-senpai, definitely. Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai, definitely. I don't know about Hikaru or Kaoru, but I _know _Tamaki-senpai didn't notice."

"Oh, so all but one." Tsubaki-chan said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "_Great_."

"Yeah, but what happened?" Mei-chan prodded.

"Complete - utter - disaster." Tsubaki-chan groaned, and let her head drop onto the table. Her voice continued, somewhat muffled, but there nonetheless. Yumi-chan started to creep closer to the table. "I was talking to Tousaku-kun, and we were…talking…" she cast an anxious look at Yumi, "and then I felt someone tap me on the shoulder, and it was _Hikaru_. And he was asking how on earth something was on his plate when he hadn't even ordered anything. And Kaoru was behind him, trying to tug him away - I guess Kaoru knew - and then they saw each other. And - I told you Tousaku-kun was there when the twins kidnapped me, right?"

Haruhi wanted to run her hands over her face, but refused the temptation. Mei-chan nearly dropped her popsicle. "Oh _no_."

"Oh _yes_." Tsubaki-chan lifted her head from the table a few times and then let it fall, so it let out a hollow thunking sound. "Tousaku-kun jumped up and stood in front of me, which was _totally _sweet, but that made Hikaru recognize him. You know the way the twins smile, when they see something they can mess with?"

"Yeah-huh."

"And then Tousaku-kun was snapping at them about kidnapping me, and Hikaru was saying it was for _my _sake - you know, for my brain cells, so nothing atrophied over the summer - and Kaoru was still trying to pull Hikaru away, I'll have to thank him later, and them _Suou-san_ saw it all and lit up like a Christmas tree. And then they had surrounded Tousaku-kun, and they were like _piranhas. _They practically dragged him to sit at their table and spent the whole time questioning him about my middle school life." Tsubaki-chan thunked her head twice more. "And learned stories I _never_ wanted them to know, because now, apparently, they are _good friends_ with my _boyfriend_. They did _not_ need to know the story of our _Romeo and Juliet _production. Or about the fish. Or about _any of it_."

And she finally wormed out the picture of Tousaku-kun and slid it over to Mei-chan for her to look at. Mei-chan's lips puckered in a low whistle, and she waved it Haruhi, who took it. Blonde and attractive. This was getting a little dangerous. "Did they try to get him to transfer to Ouran?"

"Oh _yeah_ they did. And I'm going to _kill them_. Tousaku-kun actually thought about it for about three seconds before I stepped on his foot."

"You stepped on his foot?"

"Gently. I stepped gently on his foot." Tsubaki-chan let out a heavy sigh and then sat up straight again. "Hi, Yumi. What have you done all day?"

"Helped Haruhi-nee-chan with food and studying." Yumi-chan answered promptly. "Are you going to French this boy, nee-chan? That's what Rin-nee-chan said you do when you get a boyfriend. But I don't get it. What does French mean? And does this mean that she'll keep saying that you're a lesbian?"

Tsubaki-chan, who had just knocked back a handful of crackers, swallowed one wrong and choked. Mei-chan pounded her on the back. Haruhi raised an eyebrow at Yumi-chan, who simply blinked a few times and said, "What?"

"_Yumi-chan_!" Tsubaki-chan finally managed to get out, the words distinctly strangled, as Yumi-chan reached forward and picked up the picture, tilting it from side to side, investigating. "She talked about that stuff in front of _you_?"

"Yes. What does French mean?"

Tsubaki-chan looked about ready to have an apoplectic fit. "_Rin_…!"

Mei-chan seized on another word though. "Boyfriend? I thought you just had a crush on him."

"Oh." Tsubaki-chan blushed bright red again. "He…um…"

"Oh my God, he didn't ask you on a _date_ after all of that!"

"Before all of that," Tsubaki-chan corrected, and Haruhi relaxed a little. Kaoru had mentioned something about this, hadn't he? "Before Hikaru came up he asked me to go to the aquarium with him. And he walked me back here at the end of my shift."

"He _did_?"

"Mm-hm."

"That's awesome!" And Mei-chan hugged Tsubaki-chan hard, smearing a bit of blue popsicle on Tsubaki-chan's cheek with the stick. "Girl, you are our sister. You know that now right?"

"E-Excuse me?" Tsubaki-chan swiped at the popsicle smear. "I don't understand."

"Anyone who can last a full drama with the host club and leave it without murdering them - no matter what your intentions are - is officially welcomed into the Sisterhood of Long Patience." Mei-chan grinned at her, and pushed the bowl of crackers towards Tsubaki-chan again. "Me and Haruhi are the only members other than you. Welcome, sister."

Tsubaki-chan looked as though she didn't know how to react; then a smile quirked her face and she took the bowl. "Thank you, sister."

"Nee-chan, you haven't told me what French means."

"It's a type of kissing, sweetie," Mei-chan responded. "You'll learn about it when _you're_ old enough to have a boyfriend."

"Rin-nee-chan said that you have to stick your tongue in his mouth." Yumi-chan looked disgusted. "That sounds gross. You're not going to, are you, nee-chan?"

Tsubaki-chan turned apoplectic red again, but bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything. "I don't know, Yumi."

"It sounds gross. Don't." Yumi-chan thought for a few seconds. "What does lesbian mean?"

This sent Mei-chan into hysterical laughter. Haruhi stood, and went to get more tea. It was advisable, when Tsubaki-chan turned just that color red, to get out of the way as much as possible. But it was good, she decided, spying on the proceedings through the open doorway - Tsubaki-chan struggling to get at her phone and take the picture back from Mei-chan at the same time, who was holding it high over her head and teasing her the way a cat teased a kitten - for Tsubaki-chan to let go. She had so much to worry about, laughing would be good medicine for her. She was certain of it.


	9. Chapter 9

_iStat:_

_Chapter title - none  
Chapter word count - 8,247 words  
Chapter rating - meh. T. Again.  
Chapter involves - a freak-out, a kiss, and a pair of binoculars._

The phone buzzed.

Hitachiin Hikaru didn't really want to answer it. A late-night video-game duel with Kaoru had ended only when the sun had begun to rise, and as it was still summer vacation, not to mention a _Saturday_, he was certain that there was some sort of law against getting up before noon. Considering his clock (when he cracked an eye open) only read 8:04, this was, clearly, harassment. Which also, clearly, meant it was Tono on the other end of the phone.

Hikaru crammed the pillow over his ears rather than pick up. Since he and Kaoru had migrated to separate rooms, it was a lot harder for him to get up in the mornings; usually Kaoru (the early-morning freak) kicked him off the mattress at 7AM no matter how late they had gone to bed the day before.

Except, of course, on Saturdays, when the entire world acknowledged that the Hitachiin twins would sleep in and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

Except, of course, Tono.

When the phone started ringing again, Hikaru moaned, and fumbled around for it. There was some sort of half-crafted plan in the back of his mind that he could throw the phone out the window (after all, he could afford another one) but when he finally found it, it stopped ringing, and he finally managed to see the screen.

_Two missed calls from Yasumura Mei_

Mei-chan? He sat up with a frown, the blanket sliding down his back. Mei-chan hadn't really contacted any of them since the beginning of the summer, when they'd all gone to the fair and she'd staggered away looking shell-shocked. (That had been hilarious.)

But for her to call twice in ten minutes…His brain buzzed.

Mei-chan had been spending a lot of time with Haruhi lately (part of the reason that he hadn't been able to spend as much time with Haruhi, the other part being Shoumi, and he was irritated about that but he was the one who'd been talking about opening the door to the world and – no, stop there. It was too early for these sorts of thoughts.). And he'd been spending a lot of time with Haruhi lately…was Haruhi in trouble?

As if in answer to his question, the phone buzzed again in his hands with a text.

_call NOW u flipping geek!_

A knock on the door. Hikaru grunted something, flopping forward on the bed again and dialing numbers, as Kaoru slipped in through the crack, stretching one arm over his head and squeezing his eyes shut. His other hand had his own phone, which was squawking with an bird-like tone that had always annoyed Hikaru.

"You have one too?" Kaoru asked, yawning so widely that the word became a groan. Hikaru glanced up at him, and then frowned at the phone.

"Yeah. I'm debating."

"Mei-chan has a tendency to overreact." His twin agreed, dropping down on the end of the bed and nearly squashing Hikaru's feet.

Hikaru grunted again and texted back. _Do you know what time it is?_ "But still…"

_yes of course. time for you to wake up. LAZY. it's eight already. _

_That doesn't mean I want to be AWAKE. _Hikaru scowled at the phone and wondered if it would be a criminal offense to kidnap Mei-chan, dump her on a desert island. _Bet Kyouya-senpai could do it and nobody would ever find out where she went._ It would make things infinitely easier sometimes.

Kaoru leaned over him to see the text that came buzzing back.

_tsubaki's date is today and you are still in BED?_

It was like a cattle prod had been applied to his face. Hikaru yelped, rolled away, fell off the edge of the bed, and hit his head with a thwack as Kaoru lunged for the phone that had gone flying. He fumbled when he caught it, and the cell cracked against the floor, breaking into two separate pieces. Hikaru rubbed the back of his head with a snarled swearword, glaring at the cell phone. It was totally dead, and he doubted he could repair it. Maybe techno-geek Hani-senpai could. He wasn't about to ask Kyouya-senpai; he'd probably end up with a debt on his hands, and there was no way he wanted something like that.

Kaoru glared at him. "Hikaru! What the heck was that?"

"I forgot!" Hikaru sat up, slowly, checking his head was in good shape, before bolting to his feet. "I forgot, I forgot, I forgot –"

"Forgot _what_? Slow down, you're going to end up killing yourself."

Hikaru ignored him, plunging into the closet and throwing outfits every which way. He'd forgotten, totally forgotten –

"Hikaru!"

"Aren't you coming?"

"Coming where?"

"Oh, right, we talked about it at that meeting you missed –" He hopped around on one foot, trying to find his other shoe while pulling up his sock and talking simultaneously. "You remember the café a week ago?"

"Of course."

"Shoumi has a date today."

"And this means what?"

Hikaru raised an eyebrow at him, and then pounced on his shoe. "What do you _think_?"

Kaoru suddenly looked stern. "You can't follow her."

"Why not? You did it to me and nobody died. Besides, they're going to the aquarium. Don't you want to go to a commoner aquarium?"

"I don't think there are any aquariums in Tokyo."

"Which means we get to ride on the train! Don't be a spoil-sport, Kaoru, it doesn't suit you. And you know Tono will kill you if those wrinkles end up permanent."

Kaoru blinked. Then he frowned again. "I still don't think this is a good idea. She'll kill you if she catches you, remember? And this isn't like the date you had with Haruhi. That had everything to do with the host club. This…this doesn't. This is private."

Hikaru stopped and stared. "Since when do _you _care what's private and what's not? It never used to matter before?"

"I just feel like it's unfair for us to be spying on her." Kaoru said. Hikaru rolled his eyes.

"Please. You know she'd do the same to us."

"But that's the thing - Hikaru!"

But Hikaru, who had changed at the speed of light, had already slammed out of the room, leaving Kaoru to pick up the remnants of his brother's cell phone and wonder if he had possibly made a mistake.

* * *

The morning they went to the aquarium, it was raining, and her hair had gone flat.

Tsubaki glared at the once-curly strand of hair dangling over her shoulder, lamenting the loss of the curls that Mei-chan had teased her stubbornly straight brown hair into only an hour or two before. The damn damp in the air had made them flop again, and she doubted she was ever going to be able to keep curls for any length of time. Ever. In her life.

Tousaku-kun, thank God, hadn't noticed - or if he had noticed, he hadn't mentioned it, which was almost as good. Tsubaki snuck a peek at him out of the corner of her eye. He was wearing dark jeans and a heavy zip-up hoodie that had the word _elegy _written across the front in curly English script. The letters were as curly as she wanted her hair to be, and almost too hard to read; it took her three tries to puzzle it out, even with her grandmother lecturing her on proper spelling in the back of her mind.

_God, he's so cute._ She never would have ever dreamed of this in middle school, when she'd simply been crushing on him, Tousaku Makoto, the soccer champion of the school, the boy every girl had always been in love with, and she was staring at him and cooing in her brain like a stupid shoujo heroine but she didn't care. Because she was there and the other girls weren't, and it felt oh-so-sweet.

Her phone buzzed with a text, and Tsubaki checked it. Kaoru. _For God's sake, didn't I tell them I was to be _left alone_ today?_ She scowled and ignored it as the train shuddered into the station of a small seaside town that she had never heard of, which, apparently, had an incredible aquarium.

"You okay?" Tousaku-kun looked concerned, and the light glinted off his glasses. Tsubaki nodded, disregarding the fact that her phone was still buzzing in the bottom of her purse, and smiled.

"I'm fine. Just kind of nervous."

Some of the tenseness leaked out of him, and he smiled. "I was afraid I was the only one. Come on, the aquarium's this way."

"How did you hear about this place?" Tsubaki asked, once they had left the train station. The little town - she couldn't remember the name off the top of her head - was delicate and cloudy, and the rich foreign smell of the ocean filled her nose and almost made her sneeze. Tousaku-kun walked faster than she had anticipated, and it took a little effort to keep up in the heeled sandals that Mei-chan had forced her into that morning. (Mei-chan, having been on more dates than Haruhi, Tsubaki, and Yumi combined, had been called that morning for an emergency consultation.) She liked the shoes, and the outfit, but that didn't mean it was easy to walk fast in it. "It's beautiful here."

"My parents used to bring me here when I was smaller." He smiled. "Mom is a marine biologist. She mainly teaches at Tokyo University now, but back then we used to come out here once a month, easy. There are a bunch of tide pools. She even helped found the aquarium."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. They have a plaque and everything. It's kind of crazy. I mean, I used to come down here all the time when I was younger. Lately it's been harder." Pause. Tsubaki snuck another glance at him and wondered what had made the expression on his face change so quickly. Then he brightened again and his elbow bumped hers. "But it should be fun. Yeah?"

"Yeah." She beamed. "So what does your dad do? Is he a teacher too?"

"Kind of. He teaches kendo. He's pretty good. He trained with one of the big martial artsfamilies when he was younger…um…" He drummed his fingers against the railing. "Something -zuka."

Tsubaki nearly bit her tongue. "Morinozuka?"

"No. The other one."

_Oh, good lord. Please tell me no._ "Haninozuka?"

"That's it. He trained with them for a little while, and then decided kendo would be a better choice, so now he's a kendo instructor."

"How long did he train with them?"

"For about five years. This was a decade ago, though." She sighed in relief. Tousaku-kun smiled a little. "What's with all the questions?"

She flushed a little. "Oh. Um…I'm just interested. I've been thinking about learning kendo, so…" _Get out of my brain, host club!_ "You can ask me some questions if you want."

He gave her a funny look, but shook his head once or twice and smiled again. "Sure. What do you like to do during summer break other than work?"

Tsubaki opened her mouth, hesitated, closed her mouth, and tried to remember what she'd done last summer break. She'd gone to bookstores a lot, hadn't she? And hung out with Megumi a lot. "Not much. I get my homework done fast and then I read most of the time. And spend time with friends." She added. "My best friend moved away recently, though, so I haven't had a lot of time to do that."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"No, don't worry about it."

Her phone buzzed again. Tsubaki stopped in the middle of the street and yanked it out, frustrated. There were five missed calls, seven texts, and three messages from Kaoru, and she had no doubt Hikaru was an accomplice. Tousaku-kun paused on the corner and looked at her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She said through gritted teeth. "Just… somebody wants to drive me insane."

"That thing's been buzzing for a while, hasn't it? They might really want to get into contact with you for something."

"I told them to leave me alone today." She deleted it all, turned off her phone, and caught up with him at the front of the aquarium. "It's okay, don't worry about it. If it were an emergency it would be Haruhi calling, not Kaoru."

"Kaoru?"

"You met him at the airport. Remember?" _Of course, it's something I would rather forget._ "Kaoru was the light-haired twin. Of course, just because he's more sane doesn't mean he won't go out of his way to annoy me."

"How long ago did you meet these guys, anyway?" He asked, tentative. It sounded like he was trying to balance on an egg without shattering it. "Have you known them long?"

"By now…um…a month. Or so." _God. Not that long._ "I met them through a crazy fluke. It was fate's way of laughing at me. The same way it has been all year." She added under her breath. He didn't seem to notice.

"You seem pretty close to them for only knowing them a month."

"Well, you sort of get used to it." She locked her hands behind her back, staring up at the sky. It was cloudy and gray, just the way she liked it. "They're kind of like a virus. Hurricane. A hurricane virus. They infect you and blow up your life and they don't mean to, it's just a symptom of being their friend."

"Along with them hanging on you?" Tousaku-kun said, raising a dubious eyebrow. Tsubaki sighed.

"Hani-kun, Suou-san, and the twins don't have a clue about personal space. They're like little kids. It really freaked me out in the beginning, but…" Tsubaki shrugged. "I'm used to it."

The air seemed to thicken. Tsubaki blinked, and turned to look at him. A dark look was hovering over his face, and she kicked herself for saying the wrong thing. _I shouldn't have gone on about them like that._ "Tousaku-kun, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"No. You're jealous." The way he flicked a look away from her told her she'd hit the nail on the head. Tsubaki came to a stop in the middle of the line, glaring at him. "Look, there's nothing for you to be jealous of. They're kind of crazy, yeah. Most of the time I want to break their heads open on the sidewalk. But they're my friends. I care about them. They…" she took a breath. "They helped me through something that I didn't have the strength to face on my own. They're still helping me. And as much as they drive me insane sometimes, I need them. But not in a way that you need to be jealous of."

He analyzed that. "What happened?"

"I don't really want to talk about it." _Not even to you_. "Besides, I kind of already want to kill you for telling them about the fish tank, so don't get jealous and make me angrier."

The tension broke. Tousaku-kun shot her a cheeky grin. "Why? It's cute."

She blushed again. "It is _not _cute. It's humiliating and I can't believe you told them about it. They're going to hold that over my head until the absolute end of time."

"Mm-hm."

"No, I'm serious. They're never going to let that go. I swear to God."

"I so believe you."

"You haven't had much time with them. I _know_. They're going to get T-shirts made about it and they're going to wear them the next time they come into Délice and then Rin's gonna know about it and everything and it's going to be horrible because nobody is ever going to let me forget it -"

Something brushed her nose. Tsubaki shut up, and felt her face go redder and redder as Tousaku-kun tapped the end of her nose, and smiled in that crooked way he had.

"Don't worry about it. Honestly. If they're really your friends they'll stop when you ask, and if not, then they're not worth spending time with. Right?"

She nodded.

"And I promise, I won't tell them about the ballet story."

She scowled. "You'd _better _not."

* * *

"God, they're so cute it's almost vomitous."

"I don't think vomitous is a word, Mei-chan." Kaoru said, steadfastly keeping his eyes away from the front of the aquarium while Mei-chan and Hikaru dangled over the edge of the rails, trying to see better. Mei-chan had a pair of binoculars squashed against her face. Haruhi had voted not to attend, and they apparently hadn't told the rest of the host club about their stalking mission.

Of course, this made it easier to hide out, but it also almost made it harder, because without Haruhi, Hikaru was rampaging, and a rampaging Hikaru was hard to control at the best of times.

This, admittedly, not being the best of times.

They were sitting on the balcony of one of the houses owned by the Hitachiin family, one that neither Hikaru nor Kaoru had ever actually visited before today. Mom had bought it for a photo shoot two years before, because she had wanted a beach-town flavor, and had simply forgotten about it like she did about a lot of things. Hikaru had scrounged the key from their dad without mentioning any of it to Kaoru, a definite improvement when it came to independence but a definite worry when it came to stalking tendencies. Apparently he and Mei had plotted out every aspect of this trip, down to the last detail, the day after they'd heard about Shoumi's date.

He'd made as many phone calls as he could without either of them noticing, and had been texting non-stop since they'd reached the place, and _still _Shoumi hadn't responded. He could see her, which meant she hadn't been kidnapped or something, but at the same time, she wasn't responding. And it was driving him slowly insane.

"It is so a word. I made it a word. It's my word." Mei-chan snapped her gum. "I say we wait ten minutes after they go in before following them."

"What? Why not just follow them?"

"Because Tsubaki-chan's gonna be paranoid. It's cute sometimes, and other times it makes me want to throttle her, but she's always paranoid. Especially when it comes to you guys." Mei-chan gave Hikaru the binoculars, so he could spy on the line, and slid down to sit on the floor of the balcony, tapping her head against the rails. "So who are you texting?"

"Hani-senpai." Kaoru lied without looking at her, tapping another text at Shoumi. He'd _seen _her look at her phone. She had to have received the texts. But then she'd put it back in her bag and she hadn't looked at it since. _She's probably turned it off. Damn it._

"About what?"

"A question on the math homework."

"God, workaholic. It's summer. We're spying. Don't think about _math_."

"Why not? Math's important. People need math. Math is critical to most jobs in the world."

"Like you'll actually be getting a job when you graduate. You're just going to be a fashion designer like your mom."

"Doesn't mean math isn't necessary."

"Kaoru's kinda like Dad." Hikaru said. "Or he can understand what Dad's talking about. He likes math. They're both insane."

"What does your dad do?"

"Dad's a computer programmer." Honestly, he'd never thought about the fact that he could understand the gibberish that his father came out with sometimes. Hikaru had always sort of zoned out, as had their mom. Kaoru paused in his text. He'd always liked talking with his dad. They rarely had a chance to do it, because of his and Hikaru's twin-ness and the explosive nature of the rest of their family. _Maybe I should change that._ "And it's not freakish to like math."

"So says you." Mei-chan groaned. "God. I can't even understand geometry."

"Geometry's easy."

"Fine. Then you can teach me, if it's so easy."

"Fine." Kaoru snapped back. He closed his phone and tucked it into his pocket. "I can teach you. God, why is everyone being so crabby this morning?"

"So far as I can tell, you're the Grumpy Dwarf today, Hitachiin, not us. Usually I argue with Hikaru, not you. Did a bug bite you in the ass?"

Kaoru bit back a groan, pinched the bridge of his nose, and drew a breath. _Calm down. There's no reason for you to be angry. No reason at all. Except, you know, lack of sleep, lack of texts back, and overall lack of patience this morning._ "No." He stood. "I'm going to go get a soda or something. Have fun with your stalking." Pause. "And I'm _not _a dwarf."

"Okay!" Hikaru glared at him. "What's your problem this morning?"

Mei-chan lifted her head and looked at him. Kaoru couldn't quite meet her gaze; she was studying him as though he were an insect, something he was definitely not used to, and wasn't sure he liked.

"Nothing. Just tired. Text me with updates."

"Okay."

"_Don't _let them see you."

"We get it." Mei-chan said sourly, sliding her sunglasses back on her nose.

"And _don't _confront them"

"Fine! You've said that fifty times already! Just get out of here!"

"Fine!" Kaoru snapped back, and slammed the door to the balcony behind him.

Coffee. He needed coffee. Coffee would cure this. It would wake him up from his three-hour-sleep funk and get him out of this crappy mood, and then he could figure out what he could do.

There was a coffee and souvenir shop two blocks away, with the corny name of 'The Seaside Shack'. It looked like the only coffee place in town, and even though there was so much saltwater taffy in there that it made his teeth ache just to look at it, he bought one of the coffees and sat down at the table the furthest from the window. If Shoumi and her boyfriend walked by the window, he didn't want them to be able to look in and recognize him.

It wasn't like he was going to be able to _stop _Mei-chan and Hikaru from spying; if he even tried he would probably be lynched. Tono would _not _be the person to call, because if he called Tono, then Tono would want to join, and without Haruhi there would be no way to control the chaos.

Hani-senpai was probably in class, as was Mori-senpai, and Kyouya-senpai wouldn't be awake until three o'clock at the very earliest; it was only ten-something now. Kaoru propped his head on his arm and wondered if he could possibly fall asleep at the table without anyone noticing or without knocking over his coffee cup. It wasn't very good coffee, but hopefully the caffeine would be working soon.

He could always call Haruhi, he supposed, but what could she do? She was probably working - she'd mentioned something about trying to find a job - and he was getting better at figuring out when and where was a good time to ask her to drop everything and attend. Now was not a good time.

So apparently this was something he was going to have to solve himself.

Kaoru took another few sips of coffee, wondering how like Kyouya-senpai he looked at the moment. He'd found a pair of glasses somewhere, probably his dad's fake reading glasses, in order to have a better disguise. It was weird having them weigh on his nose; he'd never worn glasses before. Mei-chan had covered her hair with a hat and dressed down for the occasion, and Hikaru had come as was, of course, because he was clueless as ever about some things. At least he'd had the sense to wear dark clothes instead of the usual flashy Hitachiin line.

What could he even really do? And was it actually a problem? Shoumi was being stalked, sure, but no harm was going to come to her; the most that would happen if Hikaru and Mei-chan were caught would be that she would probably blow her top and not speak to them for the rest of her life. Or at least a week. She would probably vanish as soon as the school year started again anyway, no matter how close she was with Haruhi; Kyouya-senpai had been working hard on trying to track down the battalion that Shoumi's parents had been assigned to. As soon as they were found and as soon as they came home, Shoumi would no longer have any reason to spend time with them.

He clenched a hand around his coffee cup. Her parents. In Iraq. In a war zone. For three months. Three whole months, and neither of them had thought about contacting Shoumi or the kid sister. He'd heard that it was always difficult to get into contact with family while on duty, but that was for soldiers, and they weren't soldiers, they were _photographers_. There was no excuse for this. No. Excuse. At. All.

Was this why he was so angry this morning? Sure, that was part of it; he was always angry when a family was breaking apart, no matter whose family it was. And he wanted to help. And Hikaru didn't seem to notice anything that was going on.

That had to be it. He was angry at Hikaru for being childish. Nearly seventeen and still so focused on these games of stalk-the-commoner. He and Tono. He loved them both to pieces - Hikaru was his twin and Tono was practically his brother - but at the same time he wanted to slam their heads together and chuck them into the River Of Awareness. They were both so sheltered. They all kind of were. The only one of them that had had a speck of maturity before Haruhi had joined the host club had been Mori-senpai.

They couldn't stay that way forever. The world wasn't about to let them.

Kaoru wrapped both hands around his coffee cup, and glared at it. _God, when did I get so cynical?_ Maybe it had been a long time coming. He'd always been giving things up to Hikaru, in a way he had never really noticed until he had sacrificed Haruhi as well. It had all built up into a little ball of anger that he hadn't even noticed until now, this second, and he was absolutely certain that Hikaru was never really going to be mature enough to hear that.

His phone buzzed on the table, and Kaoru blinked at it. It was Mei-chan, texting. _heading into the aquarium now. hikaru sulking. u okay? _

_Fine now. Sorry._

_don't worry about it, chica. ;-) _

_Just don't bother them, okay?_

_message received, captain. i'll keep hikaru on a leash._

_Thanks._

_but don't think you're gonna dodge my questions later tho. you were acting kinda freaky._

He shrugged at that, closed his phone, and slid it back into his pocket. On second thought, he pulled it back out, flipped it open, and scrolled through the address book. At the same time, he pulled his laptop from his school bag - the first one he had been able to grab in his haste to catch up with Hikaru - and turned it on, plugging it into the wall.

"Hello?" His dad sounded distracted, and in the background Kaoru could hear keys tapping. He was probably working on a program, but the fact that he'd actually answered the program meant it wasn't of dire importance. Kaoru cleared his throat.

"Hey, Dad. It's Kaoru."

Long, _long _pause. Kaoru couldn't remember the last time he had called his father, and it was clear that his father was trying to remember it too. Then the tapping stopped. "Kaoru? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He logged onto the internet, and hesitated. "Can I ask you a question?"

An even longer pause had him shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Finally, he heard the creak of the computer chair, and knew that his father was pacing around the room, the way he always did when he was thinking. "Of course. Is something wrong?"

"No, not really." He stopped for a second, trying to think. _What am I doing? What the hell am I doing?_ "Well, not with me."

"With Hikaru?"

"No, he's fine. At least, I think he's fine. He's wandering around an aquarium, I think. With a friend." _Suck it up and ask him._ "Dad, if I wanted to trace an email from an account in Iraq that was sent to a magazine in Tokyo, how would I do it?"

The silence could have been shattered with a feather.

"I'm a programmer, not a hacker, Kaoru."

"I know. But -" Kaoru took a breath. "It's kind of important, Dad. It's really important. And I wanted your help."

He heard something muffled on the other end of the line, as though his father had started to say something. And then he sighed.

"As it happens, I might know what you want to do. Do you have a computer with you?"

* * *

Tsubaki ran her hands over the glass of the enclosure, wishing she could reach in and run her fingers over the spines of the lionfish. It was deadly poisonous, but the thing was so beautiful and silky-looking she just wanted to touch it.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Tousaku-kun said from next to her, and Tsubaki glanced at him. He was staring into the tank the same way she was, hands in his pockets, and for a second she wanted to reach up and run her fingers through his hair, which looked way softer than the lionfish. She clenched her hands into fists instead. "We don't even know about half of what's down there."

"I wish I'd brought my camera." Tsubaki said without thinking, turning back to the coral and the lionfish and the other things inside the tank. "I want to show Yumi this."

"Yumi?"

"My little sister. She'd love this." Her camera was still locked in the box that she kept behind the futons in the cabinet at Haruhi's apartment. Tsubaki bit her lip, her fingers itching for it for the first time in weeks. It was a strange sensation.

"How old is she?"

"Four. I love her a lot. She's really precocious." This conversation seemed familiar. Ocean, sisters, precocious. She'd had this conversation before, she knew it. Only she'd been wet at the time.

That was it. Nekozawa-san. Tsubaki stared at the tank for a minute or two longer before it hit her. _What the hell is wrong with me?_ She hadn't even contacted him in weeks! Some friend _she'd _turned out to be.

_Note to self. Call Nekozawa-san. And Yumi._ She was supposed to call her sister around two to make sure Yumi was okay. Tsubaki glanced at her watch. It was one-thirty. She had a little time, and Kaoru had probably stopped trying to contact her by now. After a moment, she reached into her bag and turned her phone back on.

Tousaku-kun didn't notice; he was staring into the tank, and there was an expression on his face she'd never seen there before. It was a mixture, grief, fury, frustration, and she hesitated.

"Tousaku-kun, are you okay?"

"Huh?" He blinked, and the expression was gone. "Yeah. I'm fine. You hungry? We can get something from the café."

"I actually kind of wanted to buy a camera from the gift shop. Yumi will kill me if I don't bring home some pictures." It wouldn't be her camera, which meant it would be safe to use. She hesitated, and then went up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. He turned red, and Tsubaki hid a smile. "I'll be right back, okay? Just wait here."

The gift shop was very crowded, and it took her about twenty minutes to find a camera that she could afford that she could actually reach. And then she dawdled by the stuffed animals for another ten, wondering if she should buy one for Yumi.

It was weird. She'd liked Tousaku-kun for three years. She'd been so excited to come on this date with him. Even thinking about it had made her stupidly happy over the past few days. And now that she was actually on the date, it felt…stilted. Anticlimactic. Almost dull.

Tsubaki shook her head a few times. That had to be her imagination. She was having fun. She was loving this place. She loved every inch of the aquarium and she loved spending time with Tousaku-kun, and this was just her worry and her stress talking, the things that she had been trying to ignore ever since her fight with Ritsu-san.

_The heart was made to be broken._

God, that dream. She didn't even remember most of it, just the quote and her terror. She could remember the aftermath, though, when Hani-kun had reached out and she'd pushed away. And then he'd reached out again with the kendo and she'd accepted. And Haruhi had reached out with a home and she'd accepted that too.

_Depending on others isn't weakness. It's strength._

What was that from? An anime. She was fairly certain. How long had it been since she'd had a chance to watch anime? How long had it been since she'd had the time to actually go out with friends for the day, without worry that Yumi might accidentally catch something on fire?

In a way, both Ritsu-san and her aunt had been right - she shouldn't have been left behind to take care of Yumi all on her own. She had no real idea how to take care of a child. She'd been fifteen. She'd done everything she could but it hadn't been enough, not by a long shot, and she'd known it. She'd just never admitted it because she had never wanted to admit defeat to her aunt, let alone to herself.

Maybe if she'd been older, or Yumi had been older, it would have been easier. Maybe if she'd had help instead of stubbornly sticking it out on her own, she would have ended up more sane at the end of it. If she hadn't been so damn shy and so damn angry, it would have ended better. And she wouldn't have had the panic attack at the beach-house.

Or she could turn this totally around and blame her parents for some of it. She didn't want to, but there was blame to be laid. They sent pictures to Katan Wish; they didn't send her money to pay the rent. They talked to their supervisors; they didn't call her to see how she was doing. No call. No email. Not even a damn postcard. Sometimes they had done things like this before, when they had been very focused - she remembered a trip to Kyoto where they had been so dedicated to their assignment that Tsubaki and Yumi had gone on a jaunt around all the temples and returned to the hotel room at one in the morning to find that their parents _still _hadn't returned. But what kind of parenting was that?

_I'm not going to be able to forgive them._ She tightened her grip on her wallet as she handed over the camera to the cashier. _Not for a long time. Maybe not ever. _

Maybe she wasn't a weak, stupid, useless nothing after all.

_Stop thinking about this._ She was on a date with Tousaku-kun. In ten minute she would call Yumi to see how she was - probably doing Ranka-san's hair - and then she would have fun for the rest of the day. And tonight she would write a letter to her parents in the scrapbook she kept in the back of her room, not the photo album that Haruhi had given her but the album of her own photographs, the one she'd been making for their anniversary this June, and she would let them know exactly what she was thinking when they came back.

Because they had to come back. They'd promised to.

She ended up buying a beluga plushie, because she knew Yumi liked whales, and by the time she finally rejoined Tousaku-kun he was sitting on the bench near the tank, head propped on his hands, staring into the water. That look was on his face again, the one she didn't quite recognize, and before she could stop herself she had a camera in her hand and she'd snapped a photo of it.

The click made him jump, and when he turned to look at her the look was gone, as though it had never been. She convinced herself that she'd imagined it.

"Caught you snoozing." She said, and held up the camera. He laughed a little, and all the doubts she'd had flew out the window. This was why she liked him. His easy laugh, the way he stood, his hair, his eyes, his kindness. Besides, it was the first date; nobody said the first date had to be perfect; she was nervous; she was overreacting. And she was still a little tired, so she wasn't reacting well to the trip. That was all.

"I'm guessing the gift shop was insane?"

"Completely. I had to beat an old lady over the head with my purse to get the camera I wanted." She slung her purse over her shoulder, snapped a picture of the lionfish, and turned back to him. "Let's go explore the Great Barrier Reef."

* * *

Mei-chan and Hikaru came to pick him up at around five o'clock, both complaining of sore feet and the lack of juicy tidbits to report. Kaoru closed the hacking program as they came closer, automatically saving what was up on screen, and Mei-chan sent him a raised-eyebrow look as she dropped into the chair next to him.

"You're acting more like Ootori every second." She said. "You still the Grumpy Dwarf?"

"Not so much. Multiple cups of coffee helped." He'd also bought a surprisingly palatable lunch from the Shack, the remnants of which were still on the table in front of him. He'd been trying to track the emails of Shoumi's parents from Baghdad to Katan Wish, by hacking into Katan Wish and tracing the emails backwards. Another one had come in only a few hours before he'd started working, and he'd had a chance to look at the photos.

Shoumi had said her parents were photographers, but she hadn't mentioned that they were damn good ones. He'd been expecting cheesy shots of blown-up buildings and soldiers, but instead he had refugee camps, Red Cross tents, and probably the best picture, a soldier and an Iraqi standing on a hill, the sun behind them, casting their forms into shadow.

The bad thing was that he recognized some of these shots - or, more accurately, some landmarks in them. They'd left Iraq by this point. They had to be in Saudi Arabia or Yemen by now; he could see the oceans in some shots. And in other shots there were the Great Pyramids.

_How the hell are they getting around so fast?_

Hikaru flopped into the chair and seized the cold dregs of Kaoru's coffee. He swallowed it, nearly spat it back out, slammed the cup back on the table, and swallowed again with difficulty.

"What the _hell _is this?"

"Coffee that you can get in a cheap café on the seashore." Kaoru answered absently, and opened up his email. Nothing really new. Some updates from Ouran about events for the coming year. A college scout starting early on recruiting season. Whatever. He closed out of it again. "I'm guessing you didn't have much success."

"They didn't even hug." Mei-chan reported.

"With that tone _you _could be the Grumpy Dwarf."

"Oh, shut up, chica. What did you do all day?"

"Computer stuff." He frowned at one of the photographs. "Doesn't matter. So are we catching the next train?"

"They left on the four-thirty, so we'll catch the five o'clock and be there half an hour after they vanish from the train station." Mei-chan pumped a fist. "I'm absolutely positive they didn't catch sight of us the whole day. I mean, there were some close calls, _especially_ when Hikaru decided to follow Tsubaki-chan into the gift shop -"

"It's not my fault that place was so crowded -"

"And I'm pretty sure she almost caught us on camera once or twice, but we edged out of sight before she took a picture, so we're good." Mei-chan nodded. "And her boyfriend is kind of hot. Cookie-cutter and kind of boring, but hot."

"What do you mean?"

"He didn't strike me as the most interesting person humanity has to offer, that's all." She took a piece of the biscotti that he'd left on the plate and inhaled it. "Is there any chance we can pick up a bento on the train? I'm starving here. I'm wasting away."

"And coffee that doesn't taste like sand." Hikaru said.

"Fine. Didn't you two bring lunches or anything?"

"Not really." Hikaru said, while Mei-chan said, "That was Hikaru's job." They exchanged glares.

"You're like five-year-olds."

"And you're not?" Hikaru asked, cocking an eyebrow, as he pushed his brother's computer shut. Kaoru barely managed to save his document before the thing went to sleep. He glared at Hikaru.

"Look, don't touch my computer, okay? And I'm still kind of pissed off. So please don't mess around right now."

"Fine! Whatever!" Hikaru shot out of his chair and stomped away. Kaoru bit back the apology that was hovering in his mouth, and ignored the considering look that Mei-chan was halving equally between him and Hikaru at the door.

"You know, if you were female, I would swear you were PMSing." Mei-chan said, as he shoved his laptop into his bag and slung it over his shoulder again, leaving a small tip on the table. "But you're not, so I suggest you figure out what the hell is bothering you before you piss someone else off."

"I just wish he was more mature."

"So do I, but that's not the problem."

"I really don't want to talk right now, Mei-chan."

"Fine, I get that. So just listen for a minute." She stepped in front of him. "You've been pissed off all day. That waitress over there keeps shooting us looks like she can't wait for us to leave, so I'm betting you snapped at her a couple of times at least. You're the twin I trust to be level-headed, Kaoru, and I know you know better than to just blame someone else for you being pissed off for no reason."

She slapped a few more bills onto the table and went to apologize to the waitress. Hikaru was tapping his foot outside the door. Frustrated, Kaoru pushed the earbuds of his iPod in his ears and started the harshest music he had in there. He really didn't want to talk to anybody at the moment.

Haruhi. He would go see Haruhi. Haruhi was good at this, better at self-analysis and emotional translation than all of them were put together. He would go see Haruhi and she would help him. Because even if they didn't figure out what the hell was wrong with him at the moment, he could at least trust her not to be offended if he exploded.

* * *

Tsubaki hesitated at the base of the stairs. Tousaku-kun had walked her home - she had gone barefoot most of the way from the train station, because the shoes had been pinching her feet - and now she wasn't even sure what was supposed to happen.

They'd stopped at a drug store so she could get the photos developed - Yumi would have killed her if there hadn't been developed photos - and then she'd been dragged into a little photo booth with Tousaku-kun for no reason other than to make cutesy couple pictures, which had been amazing. That had taken over an hour, and the sun was finally setting, casting a strange orange light over everything.

"This is where you live?" Tousaku-kun asked, looking up at the apartment complex.

Tsubaki shifted uneasily. "Um…kind of. I'm staying with a friend for a few weeks while my parents are…out of town."

"Oh." He relaxed, and she wondered if he'd thought she'd meant 'host club' by 'friend.' Clearly none of the host club would ever live here; it was too low-down and common for their tastes. "Where are your parents?"

"Baghdad. I think." She hesitated. "They're on a photography trip, so they might be anywhere at this point. I haven't really had a chance to talk to them -" _at all_ "- so I don't really know."

"Well, that sucks."

_My whole life in three words._ "Yeah." She said, without looking at him. "It kind of does."

"You want to walk to work with me tomorrow?" He asked. "I'm not that far from here. I could pick you up and we could head there together."

"Really? It wouldn't be too much trouble?"

"Nah. I pass this place every day anyway."

She'd never noticed. Tsubaki smiled. "Thank you for offering. That would be nice."

Tousaku-kun laughed again, for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. "You're so polite. It's adorable."

_I think that you pretend to be polite because that's what your parents want, and that you just kept it up so you wouldn't scare your little sister. But you're not particularly worried about being rude to us, because you have an excuse to be angry. So, in reality, you're just being wishy-washy about who you really want to be. _

She scowled - _Stay out of my head, Kaoru!_ - and set her shoes on the ground, sliding her feet into them. "It's habit." Upstairs, she could see Ranka-san, peeping out the door, and when Tousaku-kun glanced at his phone she glowered at him. The door clicked shut. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"I guess you will."

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Tsubaki looked up, barely realizing what was happening before Tousaku-kun kissed her lightly on the mouth. He tasted almost like mint, which made her jump; she'd never really liked mint. It was so abrupt she hardly realized it had happened before he pulled back, looking nervous.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Shou." He said, and walked away. Tsubaki blinked a few times, loosening her stranglehold on the bag with Yumi's present, and wondered if she'd just imagined that. That was not at all how she'd imagined her first kiss would go. Not at all.

"Shoumi?"

_No. Way. In. Hell._ She whipped around. Kaoru was looking at her with big eyes. She doubted he'd seen Tousaku-kun - _thank God, I'd never hear the end of it otherwise _- but he couldn't have looked more shocked if she'd punched him.

"What are you doing here?" They said at the same time.

"I wanted to talk to Haruhi!"

"I'm staying here!"

"You're what?"

"She invited me to stay, I'm staying here!"

"And you're bringing your boyfriends back here?'

"What are you talking about?" _Oh, God, he did see. Damn it._ "Look, I don't have boyfriends. I'm not sure I even have a _boyfriend_. Just a date. And what business is it of yours?"

"You know what? Whatever!" He flung his hands in the air. "I'm going home!"

"I thought you wanted to -"

"I'll call her later!" He slammed the door of the limousine and it drove away, and Tsubaki bumped her head against the stair railing a few times before heading up to the apartment.

She had to wait until about ten o'clock before Yumi finally fell asleep, curled around her beluga, and Haruhi and Ranka-san were in the dining room talking. When it was finally dark enough, she left the apartment quietly in her slippers, and called Nekozawa-san, wondering if the craziest person she'd ever met would finally add some sanity to her day.

* * *

**Chapter Nine**  
_No wonder you're late. Why, this watch is exactly two days slow.  
_~ The Mad Hatter


End file.
